Jaldaboath – Hark the Herald

Posted by Pugs Malone on December 25th, 2008 filed in Uncategorised

Jaldaboath at Myspace

When I heard that Jaldaboath (real name James Fogarty) was recording a solo EP, I was anxious to hear the results. He was a founding member of one of my favorite metal bands, The Meads of Asphodel. However, when I actually got around to hearing this EP, it turned out to be a terrible pile of hoary “medieval” cliches.

Things actually start off fairly well, with a brief intro track leading into “Bring Me the Head of Metatron.” Folk metal has never been one of my favorite subgenres, but this opening track isn’t bad at all. However, things take a turn for the worse for the next three tracks, which use cheesy synthesized “medieval” instruments and have terrible lyrics that not even a Monty Python sketch would touch.  The final track, “Da Vinci’s Code,” isn’t quite as bad as what preceded it, but it’s too late to save the EP. What I loved about the Meads was that they were always going off in different directions; not all of their experiments worked, but they were always interesting. None of that experimentation is in evidence here; it’s just cliche after cliche after cliche.

Now, I don’t hate silliness in metal. I love many bands I find to be incredibly silly; I find the anti-Christian sentiments of many bands to be hilarious, and the macho posturing of bands like Manowar sends me into conniptions. But Hark the Herald is just played too straight for me to get any laughs out of it.  If it’s meant seriously, it’s terrible. If it’s meant as a joke, it’s not funny. This is one of the most disappointing releases of 2008 in my opinion.