The Thickets are an old favorite of mine. Even on this, their debut release, you can hear real creativity to it. Their sound is very unusual for a number of reasons.
First off, the drummer (Jordan Pratt) tends to rely on rather standard beats, but when compared to the going's on of the rest of the band, that's actually a pretty good thing as it gives you an anchor.
The bassist on this album, Bob Fugger, or Fusty on stage, is quite talented and delivers some very memorable basslines on this album. He'll occassionally just follow the guitar, but he's certainly not afraid to break out and pull off some more impressive chops.
Guitarist Warren Banks has a gift for creating some very clever riffs, and creates an unusual groove on a lot of songs by making the chord changes on the off-beat. He only takes a couple of solos on this album, but the songwriting is designed to make this appropriate.
Toren Atkinson, frontman and vocalist, is quite impressive in that he has a voice that can make anything sound serious. And I mean anything. He doesn't have the most impressive range or the most technical voice, but he gets a lot of mileage out of what he has.
Moving on to the album itself, there's a lot of variety here. There's a few standard rockers, an epic song, a rather... grotesque parody of love songs, and some rather unusual tracks which are around 30 seconds to a minute and serve as nothing more than a bridge.
In case you were wondering, those mini-tracks are Sloth, Wrath, HVW (which is actually pretty funny), and Gluttony. For some reason, the first two don't appear on official track listings, so the album actually has 17 songs in all.
Moving on, here's a quick play-by-play of the tracks.
Goin' Down to Dunwich - Probably my favorite song on the album. This song sets the tone for the rest of the album with it's sing-along chorus, urgent riffing, and unique groove. The chorus and intro riffs are real classics.
Ogdru Jahad - Those of you familiar with Mike Mignola's Hellboy comics will appreciate this one. Toren's voice is heavily chorused to give it a more inhuman sound and the music itself is very sinister.
Shoggoths Away - Sound clips from Star Wars accompany this amusing little tale of Toren discovering a load of shoggoths (amorphous giant blobs) and trying to sell them as pets, and then dropping them on major cities when no one wants to buy them. Yes, you read that sentence right.
Unstoppable - This one is very Lovecraftian in its description of a man who's made contact with creatures beyond the scope of human understanding. Again, the archetypal Thickets groove, though not the strongest track.
Yig Snake Daddy - Thoroughly enjoyable track. Great riffing, Toren doing an Elvis impersonation, a killer solo that is actually two solos being played overtop one another, and a very memorable ending. Again, very singable chorus.
Hookworm - This creepy little number is about the fungi from Yuggoth and their ability to preserve conscious, thinking brains for transportation. The instrumentation in this one is very chaotic with more than a few unusual sounds. A strong bassline by Fusty underscores Warren's rather... unorthodox guitar work.
Rock Lords - Great bassline here. This is the sonic equivalent of Tor Johnson's lumbering. The song itself is based off a short-lived series of toys in Canada that were rocks you could turn into monsters like Transformers.
Protein - A personal favorite of mine, this is a song about the most mysterious of the Great Old Ones, Nyarlathotep. Again, killer riffing and a great bassline with one of the few solos on the album, as well as another sing-along chorus.
Burrow Your Way to My Heart - Though instrumentally really good, the lyrics kind of... Well, let's just say that this song creeps me right the hell out. I have this thing with certain kinds of bugs...
Worship Me Like a God - This is where Toren really shows off his ability to make the goofiest lyrics sound serious. This noisy rocker will have you jumping and chanting along with the band, "Ionize! Disinfect! Jacque Cousteau! Smoothly, softly! Worship me! Like a god!!"
Cthulhu Dreams - This is the epic I mentioned earlier. Over ten minutes long, this song borders on noise rock with only Jordan's drumming providing any sense of stability. Sound clips from B-movies and a Johnny Quest episode abound amidst the see of delay-drenched bass and scraped guitar strings. Toren's voice drifts in and out of the mix, all together creating an alien cacophany of chilling soundscape.
Slave Ship - The first of two bonus tracks, this is also a song on the Spaceship Zero album. A standard, infectious rocker that seems to be the band's bread and butter. Although I'd say this song sounds better on the previously mentioned Spaceship Zero in context with the rest of the album.
House of Clocks - Originally a B-side, this song is par for the course for the Thickets, but enjoyable nonetheless.
I highly recommend this ablum if you're looking for something a little different. It's definitely that if nothing else. And if you live in Canada, do take the chance to see these guys live.
