If there is something I was not expecting this year is NORTH SEA ECHOES and their album ‘’Really Good Terrible Things’’ between longtime bandmembers of FATES WARNING, Ray Alder and Jim Matheos, the driving forces behind the much underappreciated and probably the most underrated band in the history of all of Metal are back with a side project. A collaborative effort between two of the most renowned artists in all of Progressive Metal. Come to think of it,  most of their side projects have been nothing short of amazing, you got: REDEMPTION, OSI, ARCH/MATHEOS, and ENGINE amongst countless others. So this was not something I was thinking about at all even though in the back of my mind I wanted a new FATES WARNING album.

I had to have an open mind for this new project, it’s something far off from anything they have done before and I knew it wouldn’t be a FATES WARNING type of album, it would be something different. It’s funny how after so many decades of making music together, they get together and make something refreshing, truly untapped potential from both artists and they still show what they are made of. If you were expecting (that word again!) something heavy, well you aren’t going to find it here even though the themes are very deep and meaningful, the delivery is quite emotional. Sporadic activity and numerous side projects cast the prog giants’ future in doubt, but they’ve come back with an album that is stronger than anticipated, a side project as good as anything in their legendary career.

The album’s rich and unique atmosphere draws you into another world. It combines the grandeur of cinematic sound with the excitement and versatility of progressive music. Ray Alder has never sounded this much emotional, to the point of being stripped down to his basic element. He writes lyrics that are profound and have deep meaning, Other than John Petrucci, he is probably the best lyricist of all of Progressive Metal and is much underappreciated for his contributions to the genre. As for Jim Matheos, it is astonishing that one man can create such a breathtaking album. His guitar work shines through. From his stripped-down solos to his beautiful melodies on the classical guitar, his mastery of the instrument never ceases to amaze. His subtle use of multilayered guitar tapestry is impressive, adding another depth to the music while enhancing the atmosphere.

The band’s presence certainly carries much of the material with a wealth of subtler dramatic shifts and smooth, sustained intonations. Ray Alder really works to contrast the start/stop nature of the music and he may have lost his higher register years ago but his lower range has held up and works well with the material at hand.

The first single of this opus is ‘’Open Book’’. Jim Matheos spoke to the Metal Blade Records website about it and spoke at length about Ray Alder’s powerful lyrics: Matheos shares, “With Ray’s lyrics about ending and beginnings, it felt like a good mood to start with.” Alder adds, “The line ‘we’re a cloud behind the moon’ is referring to the fact that we are all an impossibility. Yet here we are. And we will go on until we can’t. I’m speaking of inevitability.“

The music and lyrical content in a way that is beautiful, but sad and often difficult to forget: The songwriter is known for creating hauntingly beautiful melodies that stay with the listener. The music hauntingly fills the air while Alder delivers his magic while capturing the audience’s attention with his subtle changes in intonations and register.

The whole album has haunting sounds, images, or words that remain in your thoughts because they are very beautiful or sad. So a piece of music that is hauntingly beautiful will always carry that element of loneliness. The whole opus is beautiful, but there’s that subtle feeling of something missing, that poignant feeling that something that should be there, is not there. That’s where the distinct flavor of yearning and heartbreak in the piece comes from. Haunting beauty comes about in a piece of art or even music when the asymmetry (perfect asymmetry, pun intended) in it is a result of solitude. If you can take the subtle aching of loneliness and use that as the point of asymmetry, the point of interest, in your art, then you’re on your way to the aesthetic I’ve been discussing.

I think that the other characteristics ascribed to “hauntingly beautiful” things all fall out of the component of solitude, or are consequences of it. If something is hauntingly beautiful but perhaps a little frightening, then it’s because you’re already well on your way to being afraid when you’re alone. If something is hauntingly beautiful but also sad, then the melancholic aspect of it also comes from the feeling of solitude; wistfulness is always close to loneliness.

Lyrics that make you think about it, how we are a grain of sand in a world full of deserts or a drop of sea in an endless ocean. In the face of the here and now and the upcoming future, it’s watching the past and seeing you have more done than what is left in your life. “Really Good Terrible Things” has a nostalgic feel about it, a tinge of sadness and regret but it sets the scene for something bigger than all of us. You are contemplating the long-gone days of yore with an open mind, an open book like the first single. It feels cinematic and even scenic, the music fits the mood of the lyrics. You still have that identity of what these guys have done together with FATES WARNING in over 35 years but there are such heartwrenching moments on this album and maybe it will carry over to the new material in the future. This duo of songwriting still does after all these years and captures a different aspect of this longstanding partnership. The chemistry is still there and it goes in many directions I was not expecting at all.