Metal Rules (USA)
http://www.metal-rules.com/

Do you ever have one of those days when nothing seems to go right? Well it has been that kind of day for me for a couple of reasons. Firstly my car is being a major pain, secondly work is a being even a bigger pain with too much to do and not enough time to do it. Finally I was looking through my Cd cases and as I see a CD that looked unfamiliar.

Well the reason for that is BECAUSE IT IS!!!!!! This was supposed to be in my pile of CDs to review not in with my collection. What the hell. This should have been done a couple of months ago. Oh well I have it now and that’s the important thing.

Logar’s Diary are a German Fantasy Power Metal band from Berlin. According to the band they are a "concept band dealing with the adventures of the magician Logar in the Earthdawn-universe(Earthdawn is a famous role playing game)". Glad they cleared that up cause I had never heard of the game before.

The band members are Hagen Hirschmann: Vocals, Steven Schubert: Rhythm Guitar, Christoph Uhl: Lead Guitar, Felix Gretzer: bass and Michael Kwandt: keyboards.

I guess you have realized by now by reading the band members names that there is something missing. Yeah, you guessed it. A drummer. the first couple of times I listened to the CD it sounded at times like there was a drum machine but it sounded so real most of the time that I figured it couldn’t be.

Well it is and the music surprisingly doesn’t suffer for it. The spoken track "Earthdawn" opens the CD with a spoken intro giving a little background on Earthdawn. Then the kick it into high gear with "Lonely On The Serpent River".

First thing I notice is the vocals of Hirschmann. He has a great voice and is only a young guy yet who can only get better. "My Love Still Exists" is complimented by female vocals provided by Sara Gretzer. "Travelling to the Blood Woods" is a great fast paced tune but suffers from the fact that the drum machine is most noticeable on this track. This was the song that initially made me find out if there was a drum machine. The disc closes with the instrumental "Deja Vu".

I give full points to the band for the packaging of the CD. Outside of some blurry fonts the inserts are very well done. My big beef comes with the drum machine which at times is very noticeable. Its not hard to tell that these guys have potential but the drum machine knocks off at least a half a point, if not more, in my books.

If these guys get a real drummer I look for great things!!!

- Review by Rick

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