Methods and systems described herein are directed to storing and querying log messages using log message bifurcation. Each log message that exceeds a time limit for storage in a live storage database is bifurcated into a log pattern that is stored in a log-pattern database and a metric object that records variable information of the log message in a time-series metric database. The log-pattern database and the time-series metric database together provide long-term log storage for the information contained in log messages that are too old to be stored in a live storage database. A request for access to log messages stored in the long-term log storage is completed by reconstructing the requested log messages from log patterns stored in the log-pattern database and metric objects stored in the time-series metric database.