Book I: Iostros

The self-financed debut of German power metallers Logar’s Diary first came out way back in 2001, and the band’s finally getting around to part two in early 2006. Musically we get few surprises, as this thing is firmly entrenched in the Euro speedy power metal style being done by so many other bands today. Originally is rarely an issue for me when it comes to this type of metal; what is an issue is the quality of songwriting and vocals, especially, and this disc is somewhat lacking in both departments.

For starters, the singer. This is the same guy who sounds great (to me, at least) in Desilence. Not sure if it’s because he improved greatly from 2001 to 2003, or just the style of music, Desilence playing something closer to old-school German thrash. When tasked to do the semi-folk high-pitched power metal singing, well, he falls flat. I’ve heard worse, but Hirschmann has a lot of room for improvement, starting with the shrieks – either drop ‘em or get a LOT better. Most of the time he just sounds slightly out of tune, or as if he’s simply trying too hard, especially when he holds notes longer than he ought to.

The music as well could stand to be improved, though it fares better on the whole. Not everything is all-out speed, as we do get some Elvenking or Storyteller-like slow, almost medieval, tunes. However, I’m of the belief that this band sounds much better when doing the fast stuff. For instance, the opener, “Lonely on the Serpent River”, craps all over snoozers like the semi-ballad “My Love Still Exists”. Seriously, The Storyteller is a good comparison to this band, as both are competent at this sort of style but are really nothing to get excited about. You can tell they’re trying and are sincere, but something just doesn’t click. But I’ll give Logar’s Diary the benefit of this being only their first release, a super low budget affair at that. The programmed drums don’t help, but overall the sound is not that bad. It’s not Helloween, but it’s not the disaster it easily could have been. With a fuller sound these guys might sound ten times better.

Power metal nuts can pick this one up if found for a decent price, but know that it’s simply not A-grade stuff. As a springboard to the future it is promising, but for Logar’s Diary to become a force in the genre they’ll need to show quite a bit of improvement across the board in round two.