The Strange Sound of Cthulhu: Music Inspired by the Writings of H. P. Lovecraft

by Gary Hill

Arguably no other author has inspired more musicians than has Howard Phillips Lovecraft. Here, for the first time, is a book documenting the music inspired by the works of this literary genius, with insights provided by the artists. The book features a foreword by H. P. Lovecraft expert S. T. Joshi and cover artwork by Joseph Vargo.

264 pages, Paperback

First published August 15, 2006

About the author

Gary Hill has been publishing Music Street Journal (musicstreetjournal.com) since 1998. Since 2018 Hill has published MSJ simultaneously on-line and in book form. He also published all the archives in book form. In 2019 Hill began a series of books under the Music Street Journal banner focused on the Rockford, Illinois music scene titled, "Music Street Journal Local: Rockford Area Music Makers." In August of 2006 his first book The Strange Sound of Cthulhu: Music Inspired by the Writings of H.P. Lovecraft was published. Since then several other books (The Concert Photography of Gary Hill, the original edition of Strange Realities: Collected Short Stories and More by Gary Hill Expanded and Revised Edition, Poetry of the Air: A Collection of Love Letters from Musicians to Music and The Suite Music World of Gary Hill and a series of three books The Dark Starr Files) have been released. Wizard Song, his first book length science-fiction piece was released on March 31st, 2020. Hill has also written for cable television (Cops 2.0 on G4), All Music Guide, Demand Media Studios and more. He launched Tale of Wonder and Dread Publishing to release science fiction and horror books in 2018, but published a collection of those types of stories in 2017 titled "Dark Dreams and Worlds." Under the Tales of Wonder and Dread nameplate, Hill has published more than a dozen books including a series on Rockford Illinois cemeteries (Rockford's Final Resting Places), Spooky Rockford and Spooky Rockford Two and Spooky Berwyn. Hill launched Spooky Ventures in 2019 and has been doing video interviews, Spooky News segments and more for the Spooky Ventures YouTube Channel since then.

Reviews

[6655321]

This book was really, really frustrating for me... to say the least. Firstly, the book is commendable in the range of its coverage (if you ever want to solve an argument such as "what metal band references the dream cycle more than the Cthulhu mythos this is where you will solve it). However, for all of the NUMEROUS occasionally even obscure references, Hill never gives you a sense of WHY bands choose to reference Lovecraft or how different approaches to adapting the mythos to song affect the outcome. Instead, we are given an extended fluff piece (long descriptions of what various songs sound like, the occasional "why we wrote this song," ties between the song lyrics and the works of Lovecraft, and an exhaustive (and not particularly interesting)answer to "what is Scandinavian Black Metal Band X's favorite story). Hill also seems to evade asking critical questions of bands (or contradicting them when they are wrong, a band claims be the first to have adapted the drinking song Lovecraft wrote to song while (1) Rudimentary Peni did so a full decade before them and (2) Hill knows this he devoted almost an entire chapter to Cacophony which is simply vexing. Also Rudimentary Peni (BIAS ALERT) probably one of the most interesting bands to adapt the mythos are given a scant coverage (Hill listens to the whole album without a single interview or even reprinting one of the interviews that already exist). On a positive note, Hill does a serviceable job in his best chapter which covers the creators of A Shoggoth on the Roof.

Ultimately: should you buy this book? Well, that would be a little complicated to answer, if you are weird and obsessive about music or the works of Howard Phillips Lovecraft it probably wouldn't be the worst purchase you'll ever make. If you lack either obsession the book may be a serviceable curiosity but probably would rot on your shelf. I'd honestly be happier with a 33 and a 1/3 book about Rudimentary Peni's Cacophony but the book is interesting just frustratingly uncritical and Hill obviously knows about music, but his musical referents when describing songs seem sort of limited so you end up having the imagined songs blur into one (also: describing music in terms of other bands vs. describing how it makes you feel: ANY AUTHOR READING THIS PLEASE TO GOD OPT FOR THE LATER, ITS REALLY FRUSTRATING WHEN THE READER DOESN'T KNOW MUCH ABOUT THE STYLE OF MUSIC AND I AM NOT GOING TO LISTEN TO PROG TO BETTER UNDERSTAND HOW SOME SONG SOUNDS MUCH LESS BUY AN OUT OF PRINT LIMITED ISSUE LP FROM THE 70S).

For the truly obsessed with HPL or musical curiosities I'd bump this to a 3/5, for a general reader its basically a 1 or 2 depending on if the material is relevant to them. Also: why isn't there one of those 33 1/3 books about Rudimentary Peni's Cacophony?

[Pompuś]

Książka dla pojebów czyt. nerdów muzycznych, którzy równocześnie uwielbiają twórczość mistrza (kierownicy) z kierownika budowy Bud (podróba budweisera). W innym przypadku nie widzę sensu tego czytać. Sensu nie ma również dokonywane w książcd objaśnianie fabuły bardziej niszowych opowiadań Lovecrafta - jeżeli ktoś sięgnął po tą książkę, to raczej zna je wszystkie, a jeśli nie zna, to tylko pogratulować wyborów na wójta gminy Żelazków (życiowych).

JEST TEŻ KRÓTKI WYWIAD Z CZŁONKIEM ULUBIONEGO ZESPOŁU AGNIESZKI!!!

[GracieKat]

I love Lovecraft and I love music so this sounded like the perfect book to combine the two. Before this I was aware of some songs that were Lovecraftian in tone like Metallica's 'The Thing that Should Not Be' and their 'The Call of the Ktulu'.
The book itself was well-done with the names of the songs, interviews with band members, lyrics and descriptions of the musical style of the song itself. A lot of time, research and love went into this book. I read about a lot of bands that I had never heard of and while some songs didn't exactly match my listening preferences I think I can honestly say that there would be something for everyone in there. I certainly took a tiptoe through the mp3s after reading it.
There is also a glossary at the back and an easy reference list of the bands, their songs and page number.
The spot where the book falls a little short for me is in the descriptions of the music. It is almost impossible to describe music in words so I have to give the author credit for trying but he overused words like crunchy, juicy, meaty and raw. Seriously, I wanted a steak so bad after reading it.
The chapters are headed by the types of music to make looking up a certain musical style easier.
Definitely a must-have for Lovecraft enthusiasts but also just for music-lovers in general.

[L.C. Frey]

Clearly not for everybody and one of its kind. But if you're into Music (mostly Metal) and the Mythos, this one's definitely for you. VEry detailed description of the music, interesting interviews with the Artists. Incredible sourcebook for your NExt best buy! Recommended!