The Strange Sound of Cthulhu ist DAS Buch, wenn es um den Einfluß des amerikanischen Schriftstellers und "Godfather Of Supernatural Horror" Howard Phillips Lovecraft auf die heutige Musikszene geht. Wer bislang dachte, diese Domäne sei nur Bands wie Mercyful Fate (King Diamond) oder METALLICA vorbehalte, der irrt gewaltig. Das Buch ist prall gefüllt mit interessanten Interviews, Stories und vor allem Reviews zu den Lovecraft-beeinflussten Stücken/Platten der Bands von Jazz über Metal bis Country. Im ersten Teil kommen jeweils viele Bandmitglieder von z.B. Black Sabbath, Rage, Nile, Morbid Angel zu Wort, und dann wird deren Schaffen rezensiert, wobei der Autor hier echtes Gespür beweist und die Songs so beschreibt als hört man sie grade (geht natürlich besser, wenn man das auch tut :-)) - besonders sinnvoll ist sowas bei Bands wie z.B. Philosopher, die ihre Platten jeweils komplett auf das Thema H.P.Lovecraft's Horrorliteratur ausgelegt haben. Sehr tiefgründig aber nie langweilig und manchmal auch lustig, das ganze!!
Aber leider (nur ?) in Englisch erhältlich...

The Strange Sound of Cthulhu is THE sourcebook on music-related Lovecraftiana, for both fans of american horror-author H.P.Lovecraft and music-fans in general. If you're into Heavy Metal Music you might've heard of Lovecraft-inspired songs from King Diamond (Mercyful Fate) and Metallica, but Gary has them all - from the german "Lovecraftian" Death-Metal Band "Philosopher" to Country and Rap. And he has the great ability to write the reviews in a way that you seem to hear the music, which is kinda rare in the Review-business. Most of the bands tell very interesting and sometimes amusing stories about their relationship to H.P. Lovecraft and what inspired them to involve his terrific horrors and monsters in their music - all in all a great book that keeps you reading it!!!

The Strange Sound of Cthulhu is quite the labor of love. Although I had read bits and pieces over the years about H.P. Lovecraft's influence in metal, this book brings to light just how far reaching it is. Each chapter delves in different musical genres in an almost progresive manner; starting with Psychodelic Rock, then moving through Progressive Rock, Metal, Punk, and Goth. Not only is this book well documented with album/song refernces, it also contains interviews with the band members giving the reader a bit more insight into what the artist was trying to convey. What I liked most about the book was that it is a great companion to my music collection. I found myself pulling out CDs that I haven't listened to in awhile and almost re-discovering them. You would be hard pressed to find a more thorough book on H.P. Lovecraft and his influence on music.

It's also more of an announcement than anything else. He's told me that he'll be doing a real review later on, but for now this is the thoughts of Dr. Abner Mality of Wormwood Chronicles on the Wormwood Chronicles Bulletin Board. It's essentially the first review of the book.

"One of our own Wormwood crew is now a published author. Dark Starr, aka Gary Hill, now has a book out called "The Strange Sound of Cthulhu". I've read most of the book and it's a super-thorough look at music that is influenced by the writings of H.P. Lovecraft, the creator the Cthulhu mythos. I know for a fact that a zillion metal bands are influenced by Lovecraft's horrors. The book not only includes the metal bands but also looks at prog rock, punk rock and even country and rap that is inspired by Lovecraft's weird works! In many cases, Gary got interviews with the actual musicians themselves. The world's best authority on the Mythos, S.T. Joshi, wrote the foreword for the book."

You'll note that I write under the pseudonym of Dark Starr at that site. Also, he went on to post some links for people see more about the book, but if you go to Wormwoodchronicles.com and then the message board, you can see the rest of it - category is Worm Talk.