New Jersey... I don't really know an awful lot about New Jersey apart from it's in America and on the coast. That's about it really, but today I'm going to learn about some of the cultural contributors. Thomas Amoriello is an author of children's books, as well as a musician. Here today we have the most recent EP "Dear Dark". The artwork is fairly simplistic, digital illustrations, not to my taste personally, but we are here for the music really.

Opening the EP is "Dear Dark" and straight away it hits deep. Dense and thumping riffs pound through my speakers, marching through its musical journey. The guitars pound and wail from one another, delectable runs and powerful piercing vocals erupt and bring the track to life. It is one hell of an opening statement. Next came "This Burning Evil", hard hitting drums announce its arrival; the bass line pulling you through and those mesmerising vocals really tie you in and I find myself getting more and more invested in the EP as I hear it. The track builds from the get-go, when you did not think that it could get any larger, the delectable intricacies start creeping in, runs, breaks and subtle licks that really tie the performance together.

Hold onto your hats people, sit down, take note and listen in to "Thirty Four Burning Strings". I'm going to go out on a limb here and make the educated guess that there are 5 separate guitarists performing on this track, along with the bass (I count 34 strings with that, but I've been wrong before!). There are no words that I can use to describe the beauty of this track. It is full on; it is intense but most of all it is just a sheer and unadulterated demonstration of musical knowledge and skill. It must be heard.

"Magic Wand (Abracadabra)" is a bit of a strange track, dissonant keys accent the rest of the tracking, a lot of the melodies seem to be off key from one another and they just clashed for me. Perhaps this was the desired effect? But for me, this was the weakest track of the EP, I didn't really enjoy it at all. Finally, came "Milan's Dream", a sort of bard style vocal piece that I can only describe as haunting, or beautiful. It might not be the high octane energetic final flourish that many would end with. But it is one of the more memorable record endings that I have heard.

Overall, fantastic. There is so much good about this release, the intricacies, the musicianship, and musical knowledge is just absolutely fantastic. Each track seemed to have its own sub-genre that it was emulating, showing a vast skillset of each musician involved in the project especially Tom himself, well done all involved!