Diary of a Soldier

It was all but a foregone conclusion that anything coming out of the traditional heavy metal scene during the mid-80s was going to be heavily impacted by the explosion of interest in high-fidelity produced, heavily melodic AOR. One could maybe blame the direction taken by prime movers from the early rock scene like Rainbow, Alcatrazz and even Black Sabbath under Tony Iommi's sole leadership as instigating this change in direction, but whatever the reason, every band hailing from the Continental U.S., The British Isles and even mainland Europe was following suit. Among the late-comers that misses the earlier days of grittier tunes with lower fidelity recording equipment was Sweden's Arrow, a band that would originally plant it's flag on the same smooth rocking swagger that bands like Tygers Of Pan Tang, Steeler (Germany) and Saxon were taking circa 1985, though would also function as the precursor for the still active melodic metal project Zhiva.

Though not the only word that they'd have in the studio, their 1986 EP Diary Of A Soldier presents the most complete picture of what this outfit was about from a musical perspective. In essence, this quintet were the textbook definition of fence-sitters, carrying equal shares of the AOR and heavy metal sound and communicating it through the sort of ultra-slick yet occasionally rough-edged lens that Dokken was working with at the time. For his part, vocalist Mattias Hoijer is the quintessential AOR front-man, with each note being perfectly calculated and the general timbre of his voice mirroring the soulful smoothness of older rock icons like Brad Delp and Mickey Thomas. The rhythm section comprised of bassist Hakan Jardmo and drummer Magnus Tallaker takes a generally by-the-numbers mid-tempo grooving approach, and guitarist Mats Ottosson doubles as keyboardist and further softens the arrangement to near Journey levels.

Be all of this as it may, this outfit managers to establish some clear metal credentials in terms of riff work and general execution within their admittedly lighter format. The opening anthem and title song "Diary Of A Soldier" has a nice punchy riff set, borrows a few guitar harmony ideas from the Thin Lizzy well, and rides a galloping groove during the verse section that is about as Iron Maidenesque as they come. Likewise, the more down tempo rocker "Straight To Your Heart" delivers a solid guitar-centered crunch and could pass for a moderately heavy number from the Scorpions' mid-80s catalog. The haunting ballad turned animated riff machine "Tonight's The Night" presents this band's closest flirtation with speed metal and definitely takes some heavy cues from Maiden in the guitar department, while the general flavor of the rest of the arrangement reminds heavily of Kooks. Things end on a more subdued note with the somewhat sappy power ballad "Until The End Of Time", by no means a terrible song, but kind of a weak note to end things.

It's unclear as to when Arrow folded tent in terms of a precise date or year, but this reasonably solid EP would ultimately prove to be their final word on things. In the grand scheme of mid-80s heavy metal's fixation of filling arenas at the expense of a more dangerous and forbidding approach to song-making, this is far from the worst thing to come about. Admittedly it walks a fine line between sounding like a bonafide metal offering and something that Desmond Child might dream up, but those who don't mind a rocking variant of metal loaded to the brim with keyboards will definitely take to this. To the band's credit, they don't seem to be solely fixated on writing love songs or scoring with groupies from a lyrical perspective, and while they don't exhibit the wild virtuosic tendencies of a lot of their contemporaries, they adequately get the job done and score a couple of solid tracks in the process.