Herald of Doom

It took Dagorlad no less than six years to release their new album, something which I don’t mind if the result has sufficient quality. The Belgian two piece band cannot be blamed for doing things wrong. “Herald of doom” features lots of keyboards and sounds wonderfully epic, constantly dark and menacing at the same time though.

The lyrics are part of this too, as this is a conceptual album about the aggressive warrior tribe of the Imptacar and the Brotherhood of the Silver Cross. The story seems a bit weak but it’s nice to listen to the epic, mostly slow motion music of Dagorlad while reading the booklet.

The band could be described as a satisfying mix of Summoning and Bal-Sagoth, their style resembling the latter most. They possess Summoning’s evil element and the patient, slow development of their musical visions, at the same time they possess Bal-Sagoth’s epic grandeur and the key to the musical part of tough and brutal sword & sorcery fantasy.

Dagorlad may not reach the level of the mentioned bands entirely but this album has very good quality, despite the rather boring and uninspired drum machine. As we won't be treated to another Lord Of The Rings movie Dagorlad might be an alternative for a ticket to a better world. I bought mine and can only recommend it.

Some bands never get the chance to reach a greater public. They appear in a few catalogues, but because their isn’t any info on their releases, you simply let their names pass by and forget them when reading the next name in the catalogue. And it’s a big catalogue you’re reading. But sometimes, you get lucky. I was reading an internet catalogue and each release had a little information next to it. For “Herald of Doom” the information said: “for fans of Bal-Sagoth”. Of course, this got my attention. Bal-Sagoth are one of a kind, unique and magnificent. They are gods to me. I had to get this album! Surely, I had doubts about the band, for how could one possibly copy the sound of mighty Bal-Sagoth? The answer is rather simply: you can’t copy Bal-Sagoth. But that doesn’t mean Dagorlad is a fraud, far from that…

Why did the catalogue mention that Dagorlad is for the fans of Bal-Sagoth, while Bal-Sagoth is unique? By taking a look at the elements used: a dark fantasy story, a lot of keyboards and the harsh vocals that don’t match the music. Sounds like Bal-Sagoth indeed. But the differences are very clear when listening to the record. First of all, the guitars are nearly always played at a slower pace, creating a melody from variation in the guitars rather than by playing fast. Also, in the middle of a guitar piece the sounds goes a lot higher, and then continues. This gives the music an experimental tint. Note that the guitars can go at a faster pace, but when that happens the vocals go at their own pace or the keyboards will dominate.

Second important thing about Dagorlad are the very dominant keyboards. As mentioned above, they have more importance than the guitars. This gives Dagorlad the opportunity to create a medieval atmosphere with a lot of dark parts. In “Dwarves” for example we take a journey into unknown dark caves and get to the deeper parts of the mountains. This is simulated by eerie keyboard sounds which are accompanied by deeper tones after a while, and at last guitars, vocals and drums join in. We have arrived at the halls of the dwarves, where they forge mighty weapons and armour. And it happens all right in front of your closed eyes.

Next important feature are the vocals. They are some kind of mixture between whispers and grunts. This makes that the lyrics can be understood, although the vocals have a rough edge. They vocals are not melodic, they don’t really follow the music but rather go their own way. Sometimes the lyrics are full sentences, making it very difficult to sing them to the music. But as I already said, the storytelling part of Dagorlad is the important part in the music.

The drums are nearly always on the background. There is a constant sound of cymbals, the overall drumming is quite simple but since the importance lies with the keyboards this is not really a bad thing. More powerful and more creative drumming might add a new dimension to the music though.

My overall conclusion: while Bal-Sagoth can be listened to for the music only, the same thing can’t be done with Dagorlad. There is too much importance given to the vocals and the story. The music itself is sometimes rather cacophonic and without consistent melody. The music needs several listening sessions to be digested. More attention to the drums and the vocals could make Dagorlad a band with more depth. Dagorlad has potential and doesn’t use not all of it. People with patience should give “Herald of Doom” a chance.