These two errors deserve different error messages

modules/Bio/EnsEMBL/Hive/Params.pm

@@ -110,7 +110,12 @@ sub param_init {
         if(ref($source) ne 'HASH') {
             if($strict_hash_format or $source=~/^\{.*\}$/) {
                 my $param_hash = eval($source) || {};
-                if($@ or (ref($param_hash) ne 'HASH')) {
+                if($@) {
+                    if($self->can('transient_error')) {
+                        $self->transient_error(0);
+                    }
+                    die "Could not evaluate '$source': $@\n";
+                } elsif (ref($param_hash) ne 'HASH') {
                     if($self->can('transient_error')) {
                         $self->transient_error(0);
                     }