North Sea Echoes, the band comprised of vocalist Ray Alder and guitarist Jim Matheos, will release their sophomore album, How to Cast a Shadow, on July 24th via Metal Blade Records.
North Sea Echoes’ identity is further explored and expanded in this album. Matheos explains, “This record is a bit heavier, with several more songs featuring real drums, played by Dennis Leeflang. It wasn’t necessarily intentional or planned, just the way things shaped up and how they emerged this time.”
Alder concurs. “’ I’ll Leave a Light On’ is much heavier than anything on Really Good Terrible Things, the first NSE album. It has a darker, melancholic feel that fits well on this album. I loosely based the lyrics on a character from my favorite sci-fi series. I won’t say which, but they do use the quote ‘out there in the black.’”
From the radio-ready rock of “All That Comes After” to intimate, escalating “A Time of Innocence and Purpose” to the powerful, timeless ballad “Villains or Saints,” How to Cast a Shadow cohesively crosses genres and challenges aural preconceptions.
The music that became the title track inspired lyricist Alder. “When Ray sent his ideas for this one, it immediately stood out for me as a title track,” Matheos says. “A combination of title/lyrics/ imagery, and the song itself being a bit longer and having a lot of the elements of what NSE sounds like made it a natural choice for me.”
North Sea Echoes have been praised for Matheos and Adler “maintaining their distinctive identity throughout, neither relying on proven past endeavors nor abandoning them completely.” Indeed, the band and How to Cast a Shadow use the duo’s shared and separate histories to forge a fresh creative opus. Their credits are the stuff of metal legend: Alder has been the vocalist and main co-writer for prog metal heroes Fates Warning for 37 years, recording 10 albums between 1988 (No Exit) and 2020 (Long Day Good Night). Rounding out his discography are seven albums with Redemption, two solo records, and the band A-Z, which debuted in 2022.
Revered guitar/producer Matheos is a co-founder of Fates Warning, the lineup debuting with 1984’s Night on Bröcken on Metal Blade. In addition to 13 albums with Fates, Matheos launched several solo albums, four LPs alongside former Dream Theater keyboardist Kevin Moore under the name OSI, and Kings of Mercia, which launched in 2022.
In the last couple of years, the ever-prolific Matheos wrote a bunch of material—about 25 songs—that could perhaps wind up in any one of his musical endeavors. The guitarist and singer were ready to work on what would become the second North Sea Echoes album, and “I started sending Ray batches of this material, and he picked ones he wanted to work on,” Matheos says.
Other standout tracks include “Enjoy the View.” “The guitars and drums have this great drive that builds throughout the song,” Alder says. “The combination of quiet verses and heavy choruses made me think (lyrically) of a darker side to some people. Those who would choose numbness over pain.”
“Villains or Saints” is another band favorite, and NSE also feels fortunate that they found the perfect artwork to complement How to Cast a Shadow. Lauded British painter-turned-photographer Chris Friel contributed the cover art. Matheos has worked with Friel in the past (Arch/Matheos, Tuesday the Sky), and while these particular images were initially intended for a previous Tuesday the Sky record, “when we decided the title for this one, we realized those images fit perfectly on How to Cast a Shadow,” Matheos explains.
Reflecting on North Sea Echoes’ sophomore album, the duo says, “I guess you could say that there are elements of everything we do or have done on this album, yet Fates and our various other projects are totally different types of music.” If Really Good Terrible Things kick-started NSE’s career with “hovering subtleties, introspective, thoughtful reflections” and lyrics with “wisdom and authenticity,” How to Cast a Shadow ups the promise of its predecessor. Provocative words of hope, sorrow, and consciousness are paired with Matheos’ equally emotive, varied, and deeply moving guitar work.
As Alder sings on “All Fall Away,” “Days blurring into days while bridges turn to rust, nothing flows beneath just stone and dust / And those times we feel more lost than found, more let go than held are the moments we become ourselves. Let it all fall away, let it all turn to gray / Give back that borrowed time and take off that mask / Then turn to face the path ahead.”
