I listened to this about 24 hours ago and the bastards still going round in my head and it did all through my sleep and gave me dreams about storming castles and fighting peasants. This is hopefully the most annoying CD I will hear this year and also the bloody stupidest. Jaldaboath is one adopted pseudonym of James Fogarty, ex- member of The Meads Of Asphodel and (shudders) Ewigkeit. The latter project was possibly the worst ever signed by Earache and with a statement like that you know it had to be bad. With Jaldaboath the band, he has gathered another former Mead, The Mad Monk on drums and a character called Sir Bodrick on bass and invented ‘British Heraldic Templar Metal’ and yes it is as daft as it bloody sounds. This zany and humorous romp takes dashes of Knight Templar mythos along with great British comedy stalwarts such as Monty Python (Holy Grail era) and Blackadder as well as bawdy medieval period music of ye olde troubadours. If you were a bit high-brow, Pasolini’s Decamaron and Canterbury Tails may also spring to mind, although if you were remotely high-brow would you really be listening to this?
All this aside I can only approach this with glowing admiration as it is both different (although perhaps a natural evolution for a former Meads member) as well as rather clever. Starting with one of the catchiest (read most annoying) songs ‘Hark The Herald’ we are in bonkers territory with an obvious melody from that well known carol, bedecked on pompous parping instruments. Lyrics are obviously funny and match the aforementioned humour, I am not going to ruin any of them for you but have to wonder if things will translate to other territories humour wise. The period sounding musicianship works brilliantly along with the more modern guitar, bass and drum. Fogarty’s vocal delivery is virtually spoken with an English eccentricity making the whole thing completely delirious and (arghhhhh) damn bloody annoying. The title track follows with calls of ‘hey, hey, hey’ going through it and latching into your head. This actually really reminds me of another eccentric English act Chumbawamaba who also flirted with medievalism with their own ‘English Rebel Song’s’ and at their earliest more frantic period did share this sort of comedic and theatrical mindset. Calling a song ‘Bash The Bishop’ is just too bloody obvious but I suppose it had to be done and the minstrels blasting their trumpets are again brilliantly conceived. The next section ‘Seek The Grail’ is a mad cartoon dash of a song with silly almost Morris Dancing melody as it calms down. Whether they find the Grail or not is a moot point as next it’s ‘Axe Wielding Nuns’ ah I would love to see this album being made into a film. Female vocals are added to this one along with what sounds like a bicycle horn being parped in the background, good grief.
The album clincher though, after that opening song, is ‘Jaldaboath’ itself as it will be a winner for anyone over a certain age as musically it is the incredibly catchy theme music for children’s TV classic Rentaghost. If this album has served any sort of purpose at all it has reminded me to go and use the Internet age to relive this great program. ‘Bring Me The Head Of Metatron’ can only be a jousting jest at that former Meads collaborator. Not sure exactly what happened in the olde kingdom but any previous position Jaldaboath had was usurped and he was sent into exile. Perhaps if he had got the chop instead we could have been saved all this, as it really is all about cabbages and kings (yes another classic TV moment namedropped!).
I have to admit the last few songs really don’t do it for me, perhaps they are simply not as infectious, delirious and downright annoying, perhaps the joke has simply fallen flat on its face. Also ‘De Vinci’s Code’ the last number strikes as (shock) trying to be serious and maybe is a taste of things to come. This also has me wondering if this is a gimmick that honestly has the scope to stretch to another album and I really have to say that I probably hope it doesn’t. Still as much as I wanted to hate this, I simply cannot help but admire it. Now to try and get the bloody thing out of my head, a drill should do it or perhaps an axe, be warned!
Oh and I really do suggest not clicking on the link below and watching the video for ‘Hark The Herald’
http://www.myspace.com/jaldaboathofficial
