Search - The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets :: Cthulhu Strikes Back

Cthulhoid Rock!

A. Tomsho | PA, USA | 11/19/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets, Canadian rockers, released several demo tapes before they finally released Cthulhu Strikes Back, their first full album. It is commendable for a first effort. Flawed, yes. But it's fun.The majority of the Thickets' music revolves around the works of H.P. Lovecraft who created the Cthulhu Mythos stories. An obscure place to work from it seems, but the group pulls it off suprisingly well. Toren MacBin, the lead singer, can make anything sound deathly serious. Warren Banks is a promising guitarist who gives us a few memorable licks in this album. Bob Fugger is one of the more talented bassists I've heard lately, and really steals the show with his ominous bassline in the Cthulhu Dreams track. Jordan Pratt show promise as a drummer in that you can hear his work in the music and feel the rhythm, though you're not consciously thinking of it. I like that.The songs themselves are great and stand up to repeated listenings. One thing I like is the usage of sound bites from movies and old TV shows. Some may recognize clips from Lovecraft movies or old Johnny Quest episodes in particular. Perhaps the Thickets are partially influenced by Pink Floyd?My favorite songs on the album would be the first five tracks and Cthulhu Dreams. I feel that these in particular have the distinctive Thickets "sound," and that makes this album a good place to start for those unfamiliar with their work.Goin' Down to Dunwich starts with a driving intro with bells tolling in the background. The riffs all have a sound of urgency and I just like the lyrics. The bridge is also very cool with a voice over. "I'm goin' down to Dunwich. I'm goin' down and I'm not comin' back!"Ogdru Jahad shows the band's talent for strangeness. The audio effects used to warp Toren's voice into, what I'm guessing is, a chorus effect really help the atmosphere of the song.Shoggoths Away is just fun. The lyrics are the best part. "Nobody wants my mindless irridescent protoplasms/They said to fly them out and drop them in the sea/I tried to sell them on their mimicking adaptive powers/Why don't you get your oily tendrils offa me?"Unstoppable is a creepy number with a dramatic harmony in the background during the chorus. It's very catchy, and my only complaint is that it seems to set the archetypal structure that a lot of the Thickets' songs follow.Yig Snake Daddy is a classic. It opens with a Johnny Quest sound bite, goes into a powerful intro that you come to expect from the band, and when we first hear Toren's singing you immediately notice his obvious and deliberately cheesy imitation of Elvis. At any rate, that's what I hear. The solo in this song is particularly good.Cthulhu Dreams is the band's masterpiece. As I mentioned earlier, Bob Fugger's sinister bassline immediately sets the tone at the beginning, set underneath a sound bite from a Lovecraft movie with a man reading aloud from the dreaded Necronomicon. The song is also composed of various other sound bites, creepy and sometimes unorthodox guitarwork from Warren, pounding drums from Jordan, and the occassional chant of "Cthulhu! Dreams!" from Toren. Over ten minutes long, and incredibly eerie. Cthulhu Dreams is an instant classic. Ia! Ia! Cthulhu fhtagn!I could have done without some of the filler tracks such as Sloth and Hvw which are basically just sound bites and reprisals of previous songs, though. But that's a relatively minor issue. I certainly wouldn't listen to them alone, but playing the album in order, they fit in nicely.One other thing I should mention is that the group doesn't have a major record label, and they've said that they got a band together because they thought it would be fun. It shows. All of their songs have a distinctive charm that a lot of modern recording artists lack. Not many new bands are at all interested in growing musically, they're just in it for the money. Compare any major band that MTV is putting into the limelight as their flavor of the month to the Thickets and you'll notice the difference."

The Sleeper Awakens!

James M. Skipper | Houston TX | 09/15/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"You do not find a lot of Cthulhu-themed music anywhere, but the Darkest of the Hillside Thickets rock with the Old Ones. This is solid music but with lyrics like nothing else. Not as sophisticated as Spaceship Zero, there is, none-the-less, a really Old school sound to this CD. I play all my Darkest CD's to death.



Support this hard-working, highly original band!"

Truly struck back!

E. Reinert | Fond Du Lac Wis. USA | 02/27/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Fans of Lovecraft and or creative music, this is a must for your collection."