Every time someone complains that the 80s were the best era in metal and are gone forever, a new CLASSIC METAL band is formed just to prove them wrong. There seem to be so many nowadays that this is the only explanation which makes sense to me. Of course not all of them can meet the high standards set by bands like IRON MAIDEN, JUDAS PRIEST, or SATAN. Does STORMHUNTER measure up? Mostly. The music is solid and the melodies have all the soar you would expect from the genre, with harmonization and vocal/guitar dialogues aplenty, but STORMHUNTER is hard to tell apart from others in the new wave of CLASSIC METAL. "Crown of Creation" is good, dynamic, and fun to listen to, but it doesn't have anything new for the listener. The intro is suspenseful and builds well and the hooks are uplifting and punchy, but the drumming and rhythm guitars are simplistic and, in places where there isn't a melody on top, bland.

"Two Beers (Or Not Two Beers)" opens in a similar fashion, with resplendent melodicism. And the title alone starts to win me over; that's a good pun. The vocals are still medium quality; he isn't trying to go super high and failing the Rob Halford imitation, which happens a lot and is painful to listen to, but neither is his voice particularly distinct. The overall song seems to be a little more aggressive than "Crown of Creation" and considering the stomping manner in which "Sharp Invaders" begins, it may be a trend for the EP to get harder as it goes on. "Sharp Invaders" brings a little more presence to the riffs and instrumental bite without sacrificing any of the band's admittedly keen melodic sensibility. The dual guitar breaks throughout the song prove this. This is the direction more of their music should take in my opinion; it avoids feeling drawn-out or boring and leaves little room for filler.

To close out the EP, we have "Antisocial", which at first I thought was going to be a cover (like ANTHRAX did), but it is not. It starts with a short few second of clean guitar that suggests a power ballad is coming, but this is every bit the old-school rager that their other songs are. The drums charge in their straight four-on-the-floor attack, and the guitars chug and snarl sharply. The weirdest thing about the song is that every time they get to the chorus, Stefan Müller says the word 'antisocial' like he's speaking Spanish. There is nothing wrong with that of course but the way he pronounces it does disrupt the flow of the music a little.

STORMHUNTER have proven that they know their way around 80s metal and can produce satisfyingly meat-and-potatoes metal. I'm not mad that I took the time to listen to this, and there are some exciting moments (like the harmonized break in "Sharp Invaders" and refrain on "Crown of Creation") but you can afford to miss out on this CLASSIC METAL act and be assured there will be others; although if you like old-school metal with a strong emphasis on melody it's worth a shot.