Five years after its formation and after 3 EPs, the Barcelona Stoner/Doom band Laguna releases its first LP.
After seeing their tour interrupted by the 2020 pandemic, the trio formed by Joan, Françesc and Pol decided to lock themselves in the rehearsal room to compose the songs for their debut album. “Of Men and Myths” is the result of three years of composition and recording work.
Stream the second singlew “Dogma, Pt. III” through the YouTube player below:
The circle opens with an acoustic song (Dogma, Pt. I) that takes us to a wild universe, where personal aspirations and the desire to catch them rule society.
“Of Men and Myths, Pt. I” introduces the sound that usually characterizes Laguna, with a different metric and forcefulness in all the instruments. Euphoric sounds that, even when it relaxes its dynamics, has the necessary energy to keep sounding hard; a tone that continues in “Paragon.”
The tandem “Dogma, Pt. II” and “Dogma, Pt. III” perfectly visualizes the great amount of different influences of the album, since depending on the moment, one could hear influences from bands as disparate as Tool, Slipknot, Electric Wizard, Truckfighters or Black Sabbath. “Omen” works as a sort of odd couple between the energy and violence of Melvins‘ Sludge and the vocal intonation of the Metal bands that dominated the first decade of the 2000s.
To finish, “God in the Machine” acts as the LP’s sonic closure, being a mostly Stoner track, with touches of Doom, Sludge and Heavy Psych airs in its closing.
The circle closes with “Of Men and Myths, Pt. II,” a coda inspired by the Greek myth of Sisyphus, the greedy king of Ephira who was condemned to eternally carry a stone to the top of a mountain to later see it fall and have to start all over again.
Starting in 2018 with “Vol. I,” the band was postulated as a mixture of powerful sounds that drank from Mötorhead and Queens of the Stone Age. Little by little, progressive sounds were gaining ground until in 2020 appeared “Dogma,” a three-track EP that was already defined by the media as a brilliant mix of Stoner, Doom and Alternative Metal with Prog touches halfway between Black Sabbath, Electric Wizard and Tool.
On “Of Men and Myths” we see the culmination of that sound, with lyrics that deal with themes such as the search for purpose, the inevitability of doubt and the acceptance of pain as inherent aspects of life.
Purchase the album on Bandcamp: https://lagunabcn.bandcamp.com/album/of-men-and-myths
Tracklist:
01. Dogma, Pt. I 01:25
02. Of Men and Myths, Pt. I 04:39
03. Paragon 01:59
04. Dogma, Pt. II 06:41
05. Dogma, Pt. III 03:00
06. Omen 02:42
07. God In The Machine 04:54
08. Of Men and Myths, Pt. II 02:27
