Hi,

I just purchased TSOOT on iTunes, and I love it! I ordered Cthulhu Strikes Back in the 1990s and saw the band play in Ottawa after Spaceship Zero came out, so I'm a long-time fan. I'm glad to have a new album to listen to.

iTunes doesn't have the lyrics for the songs, though. Is there any way to get a copy, short of buying the CD a second time?

78v

Your wish is my command:

For maximum enjoyment of this album, please read the short story “The Shadow Out of Time” by Howard Phillips Lovecraft

The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets is comprised of: Merrick Atkinson (bass & backup vocals), Toren Atkinson (lead vocals & melodica), Warren Banks (UK guitar), Mario Nieva (North American guitar), Jordan Pratt (drums & percussion). Additional noises by Brodie Smith
Produced by Brodie Smith and Toren Atkinson
Engineered by Andrea Orr
Recorded at Profile Studios
Mixed by Brodie Smith at Hipposonic Studios
Assisted by Adam McGhie
Mastered by: Don C. Tyler at Precision Mastering, Los Angeles, CA
Graphic design/layout: Chris Stewart
Scary face art by Toren Atkinson
Yithian glyph design by Tom Ardans and Greg Ewald
Photography: Graeme Comyn (ship photo); Kathrin Bolstad (giant squid photo); Taylor Latour (all others)
Regular thanks to Chon for his studio; Claudia Lagan; Dave Genn, Brendon Brown and Steve Feindell for lending gear; and Matt Willox for the clap
Special Thanks to Gary Stewart, Mike Jackson
Extra special thanks to Garett Nicol and Lea Moseanko for all their dedication and hard work over the strange aeons

Dedicated to Dr. Steve O'Shea

For more weirdness, visit http://www.thickets.net


Prologue: Theme to an Earthquake
Tohe ete
(“uncover stone” in Nengone)

Chapter I: A Marine Biologist
“My own ancestry and background are altogether normal. What came, came from somewhere else - where I even now hesitate to assert in plain words.” – H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow Out of Time

Doctor, Captain T. O. Vess. R.V. Steadfast bearing West

He’s got a bathyscaphe (Tim was the man with the bathyscaphe).
He’s a marine biologist (Tim was the man there was never any better around). Slid with the squid underneath the waves.

Architeuthis lean and fast. Show us your sublime buccal mass.

Come along to the mesopelagic we can frolic where the corals abound if the cads with the benthic trawlers haven’t passed by the time we get down.

Collect the specimens and illustrate ‘em o well as best as you can
Bring ‘em up, lay ‘em out, look ‘em up, write ‘em down, and you can publish your findings in a peer-reviewed journal.

A keen marine biologist
A mean marine biologist


Chapter II: Blackout
“The thing was quite sudden, though later I realized that certain brief, glimmering visions of several hours previous - chaotic visions which disturbed me greatly because they were so unprecedented - must have formed premonitory symptoms. My head was aching, and I had a singular feeling - altogether new to me - that some one else was trying to get possession of my thoughts.” – H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow Out of Time
Like a spell, like a stroke, like a kick in the head, it’s like the throes of an epileptic seizure. Like the crud that you feel after sleeping for days

Like a dream, like a trip, like a drug-induced haze
And I recall only little bits and pieces of vague similitudes that my instinct says are not even mine

Like a slope, like a maze, like a bottomless pit winding around in a secret combination. Like the strain that you make trying to figure it out

Like a death, like a gap, like a watery grave and all I hear is impossible distorted impressions of a world that I’m positive is not even mine.

I knew a thing or two until the time strange outer forces wasted my tiny mind. I could not stop it

Like an edge, like a void, like a limitless fall; entire lives spent in constant isolation. Like a shard from a frozen shattered aeon of time

Like a voice, like a crack, like a whispering shriek that echoes on like it’s carpet-bombing feverish white jungles of thought that I’m positive are not even mine.

How long have I been gone, tucked down inside this limbo while
my dreams are crushing me? Enormous gulfs enormous glyphs enormous galleries. Fragmented visions of a nightmare city full of cone-shaped beings and me

Chapter III: No Way
“From the moment of my strange waking my wife had regarded me with extreme horror and loathing, vowing that I was some utter alien usurping the body of her husband...These feelings were shared by my elder son and my small daughter, neither of whom I have ever seen since. “ – H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow Out of Time
After my episode I went to my wife – the gal to whom I pledged the rest of my life. I said I’m here for you now, let’s reconcile. Her new boyfriend walked in and shot me a smile. “No way, no way, there isn’t any way”

The U of Auckland was like my second home. After my head was clear I picked up the phone. I begged to get back in the field that I led
I stopped the chancellor and here’s what he said: “No way, no way, there isn’t any way.”

My daughter studied mental illness firsthand. I thought if anyone she would understand. I travelled to the institute where she worked.
She married, changed her name and left no forwarding address.

My life is shattered, that doesn’t matter - nobody cares that I’m all better now.

Chapter IV: Strange
“Thus I was driven to vague and frightful speculations concerning the whereabouts of my true self during the years that another had held my body. The curious knowledge and strange conduct of my body's late tenant troubled me more and more as I learned further details from persons, papers, and magazines.” – H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow Out of Time
It seemed natural - I’d look into it. Piece together that gap of memory. When I tried to track down some evidence, the lack of it was more than a little strange.

Burned up papers and wiped out hard drives and chipless cell phones and reticent neighbours. Did I plan out so carefully when to claim my faculties? That’s conveniently strange.

This fax from Commodore Davie of the Royal New Zealand Navy read “The files you requested are now classified.”

Strange parallels inside strange layer on layer. Strange coincidences, strange inconsistencies.

Somebody trashed my apartment. Spray-painted “STOP ASKING.”
I’m being shadowed by tattooed ESL shabaroons.

Chapter V: Return to Melanesia
“I was given charge of my funds, and spent them slowly and on the whole wisely, in travel and in study at various centres of learning. My travels, however, were singular in the extreme, involving long visits to remote and desolate places.“ – H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow Out of Time
Well it’s taken ten long months to do, but I think I’ve finally broken through a bewildering quagmire of clues. Finally got something I can use. These coordinates are looking more like the answer I’ve been praying for

Oh yeah, alright, call up our good old crewmates tonight. Oh yeah, alright, we’re warming up The Steadfast tonight.

So the crew demanded money down. Say the Doc has moved to Crazytown. But I’ve got to find out what is true if it is the last thing that I do.

Oh yeah, alright, call up our faithful crewmates tonight. Oh yeah, alright, return to Melanesia tonight.

Chapter VI: Cultists On Board
“Other ugly reports concerned my intimacy with leaders of occultist groups, and scholars suspected of connection with nameless bands of abhorrent elder-world hierophants.” – H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow Out of Time

Cook was nearly deaf, was a sterling chef though he did enjoy his drink. He died how he lived, with his whisk and sieve and his head inside the sink.

Tony was the mate. He was 28. Was the finest friend I had. Run through with a sword and tossed overboard. Who is gonna tell his dad?

It’s no big surprise. Everybody dies. That’s small consolation to me now. Chin up, buttercup, when your number’s up. Now my life is flashing right before my teary world-weary eyes.

Steven, Kat, the rest trapped inside the mess won’t go down without a fight. Burning through the lock, you’re in for a shock when the petrol drums ignite.

It’s no big surprise. Everybody dies. Though this isn’t quite the way that I thought I would go. Seems my number’s up. Why should I be different from the rest? The deal’s the same for everybody. Everybody dies

Chapter VII: A “Need-to-Know” Basis
Hey what happened? Hey who are you guys? I’m alive but where did you come from? Are you with the Royal Navy? Are you here to rescue or kill me?

Wait a minute, I remember you! You’ve been keeping tabs on me all along. How do I know I can trust you, now my friends, my ship and my life are gone? I want answers!

“That info is strictly need-to-know, as of now you just don’t need to know.”

And the cultists - are there prisoners? What’s the interest in these coordinates? Whatcha got inside that briefcase? Are we turning back? Are we heading on? I need answers!

Chapter VIII: Operation: Get the Hell Out of Here.
“Of all things surviving physically and directly from that aeon-distant world, there remained only certain ruins of great stones in far places and under the sea, and parts of the text of the frightful Pnakotic Manuscripts. “– H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow Out of Time
It took the night just to find the place. A minor quirk in the navigation. I’m so confused that I don’t know if I’m coming or goin’
The tiny rock wasn’t on the map. I’m at a loss for an explanation.
So confused I don’t know if I’m coming or going.

We hit the shore, then we poked around, and then we saw the configuration. A rubble-strewn architrave clearly marked the way. And every cap had the same design - the hieroglyphs that I saw inside my dreams. Those glyphs, those dreams.

Now listen up, it’s important information, but the commodore was having none of it. Take your time, take your toll, everything’s under control. Execute Operation: Get the Hell Out of Here

We could see something underneath. We set the charge for the excavation. We had the cranky demolition monkeys coming and goin.’ We blew a crack in the massive trap door, and that’s when I made the correlation yeah. Oh it’s by design!

It’s gonna be alright, It’s gonna be alright, It’s not gonna be alright.

I got possessed at the perfect time for it to act on its information. The only thing that could know what was coming and going. It didn’t come down to open it. A million lifetimes to check that it stays sealed…. Goddamn – oh no!

Now listen up, it’s important information, but the commodore was having none of it. Take your life, take your soul, Everything’s out of control. Execute Operation: Get The Hell Out of Here.

Chapter IX: Ride the Flying Polyp.
“The basis of the fear was a horrible elder race of half-polypous, utterly alien entities which had come through space from immeasurably distant universes and had dominated the earth and three other solar planets about 600 million years ago. They were only partly material – as we understand matter – and…they had the power of aerial motion, despite the absence of wings or any other visible means of levitation. Their minds were of such texture that no exchange with them could be affected by the Great Race.” – H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow Out of Time

It’s getting foggy which adds to the spookiness. It’s just the kind of night they would appear. I hear them coming, the windstorm is drumming, whipping me into crescendos of fear!

They’re gonna make me ride this flying polyp tide. Why am I here, anyway?

Piping their powers from black basalt towers. Loom like colossi; I’m under their sway! Want me to ride it, but I’m undecided. What if it blows off my skin on the way?

They’re gonna make me ride this flying polyp tide. Why did I even show up? They’re gonna make me ride, I don’t feel right inside. Oh why in God’s name did I come to this place anyway?

They’re gonna make me ride this flying polyp tide. Well thank God it’s Friday ‘cause they’re gonna make me ride this flying polyp tide.
Tomorrow’s my day off – hooray!

Epilogue: Some Things Man Was Not Meant to Know
“Man…must be placed on guard against a specific, lurking peril which, though it will never engulf the whole race, may impose monstrous and unguessable horrors upon certain venturesome members of it. It is for this latter reason that I urge, with all the force of my being, final abandonment of all the attempts at unearthing those fragments of unknown, primordial masonry which my expedition set out to investigate.” – H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow Out of Time
Don’t talk to strangers. Don’t swim alone. Don’t take the dicey shortcut. Don’t turn the stone. Don’t tell a secret. Don’t fall behind.
Don’t let the Great Race of Yith supplant your mind.

Don’t wrack your memory. Don’t blaze the trail. Don’t pine for primeval jungles. Don’t pierce the veil. Don’t look for answers years down the road. Don’t copy down the glyphs that your visions showed.

Are these dreams a clutch of stifled memories? Was there something in my mind?

Don’t clean the mirror. Don’t be surprised when your reflection seems like a pack of lies. Don’t ask the inmates what it’s about. Don’t cry in the library when you find out.

Are these dreams a clutch of stifled memories? Was there something in my mind? There are things they say man was not meant to know.
Is this shadow out of time?

Footnote: Sleestak & Yeti
“My own history was assigned a specific place in the vaults of the lowest or vertebrate level - the section devoted to the culture of mankind and of the furry and reptilian races immediately preceding it in terrestrial dominance.” – H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow Out of Time
Every time that they allocate the energy, every time that they think the plans are made. Every time that they spend it to regenerate, every time that they think the eggs are laid.

Every time that they set the clock to regulate, every time that they set the drones a task. Every time that they come across a renegade it’s enshrined in the gut of her tarasque.

Sleestak and yeti await at the ready. Sleestak and yeti arise.

In my mind I can see them cut the counterweight. In my mind it’s a signal to deploy. In my mind I can see the spores disseminate.
We stand by for the line to call “destroy.”

Footnote: Downtown (in the Cenozoic)

Downtown, that is where I want to be. Downtown creodonts roam wild and free.

This time it’s prehistoric. This time everybody everyone in the house.
This time we’re gonna shout it out.

Downtown, that is where we start the show, sixty million years ago.

This time it’s prehistoric. This time everybody everyone in the house.
This time we’re gonna shout it out. This time it’s Cenozoic - smack dab in the rough and tumble Paleocene. Let’s go downtown.

Downtown, ammonites were all the rage in the Selandian age

Appendix: Nyarlathotep
“I talked with the mind of…Khephnes, an Egyptian of the 14th Dynasty, who told me the hideous secret of Nyarlathotep.” – H.P. Lovecraft, The Shadow Out of Time
(Lyrics and Middle Egyptian translation by Cristina Rizen and Inanna Gruner)

%bH.y r rw.t tA dSrt
Iw iyi.n s n kkw
M sStA.w Dw.w snf.w

Rx.n.f pA niswt km
BAk n nTrj Sspw nn Hr.f
Rdi.n.f n.i mDA.t n mw.t

NyArlAthtp
sfT.w thm.y bwtyw
NyArlAthtp

xrwyw Hr nw ark.w
iAtyw Hr mwt m xAs.wt nb.wt
Nb snD.w Hnmnm y r xrw

Wpwty n bwytyn
sb wAt n Swt Hr nikw
nrw m pr xnty n iAdw


GLOSSARY

Ammonite - Any of the now extinct cephalopod mollusc ammonoids, characterized by a thick ornamental chambered shell.
Architeuthis – The giant squid.
Architrave - A molded or decorated band framing a rectangular opening, as of a door or window.
Bathyscaphe – A free-diving submersible vessel for exploring the ocean depths.
Benthic – Relating to the bottom of the sea.
Buccal – Pertaining to the sides of the mouth.
Cenozoic – The Era of geologic time beginning 65 million years ago and characterized by the ascendancy of mammals.
Colossi – More than one colossus.
Creodont - Any of a diverse group of extinct predatory mammals, typically having a stocky, doglike body and a long, low skull.
Eldritch – Unearthly; Weird.
Mesopelagic – Relating to the ocean depths between 180 and 900 meters.
Paleocene – The first epoch of the Tertiary Period, from 65 to 55 million years ago.
Quagmire – A difficult and precarious predicament.
Reticent – Reluctant to talk.
Selandian – A Stage of the Paleocene Epoch between 61.7 and 58 million years ago.
Shabaroon – A disreputable, unkempt person
Similitude – A likeness or semblance.
Sleestak – Reptilian humanoids appearing in the children’s TV series “Land of the Lost”
Tarasque – A huge dragonlike monster from French folklore

Awesome!

Thanks a lot!

I guess I could have mentioned that I've read "The Shadow Out of Time" numerous times (in my Arkham House hardcover editions, no less Great idea for a concept album. I'm looking forward to TDOTHT's "At The Mountains of Madness". I guess we got a preview of it with Shoggoth's Away.

If you tour in Ottawa (unlikely, I guess), I'll be front and center. When you toured for Spaceship Zero I believe you stayed at my buddy Erik's house.

Lots of success to you all.

78v

Thanks so much! I just bought the album on iTunes and I am loving it!

Holy cow, you're the man! Thanks from all of us iTunes people.

One of the top albums of 2007 in my personal opinion (as I have told Mario more than once) and I adore it.

I was hoping to get Translations for Nyarlathotep.

Lyrics by Christina Rizen and Inanna Gruner

Phonetic Egyptian

Sebehy er rut ta desheret
SEhBEHEE EhR ROOT TA DEhSHERET
Iw iyin s n kekw
EE Weh EEYEEN SUHNUH KEKWEH
Em seshet’w djuu senefu
EM SESHET/Weh DJOO-OO SENEFOO

Rekh-en-ef pa nisut kem
REKH EN EF PA NEESOOT KEhM
B’k n netjeri shesepu nen horef
B/KeNeh NECHEREE SHESEPOO
NEN H REF
Redi-en-ef medjat en mut
REDEE EN EF MEDJAT EN MOOT

NEEYARLAT HOTEP
Sefetju tehemy buyetyen
SEhFEhCHOO TEhHEhMee BOOYEhTYEhN
Nyarlathotep

H.eruyu her nu ‘reku
HHHEROOYOO HEhRNOO /REhKOO
I’tyu her muetem kh’sut nebut
EE’/TYOO HAIR MOOEhTEhM KH’’SOOT NEhBOOT
Neb senedju h.enemnemy er kheru
NEB SEhNEhDJOO HhhENEM-NEMee EhR KHEhROO

Wepwety en buyetyen
WEPWETEE EN BOOYETYEN
Seb waten shut her niku
SEB WATEN SHOOT HAIR NEEKOO
Neru m per khenety n idenu
NEROO Meh PAIR KHENETEE Neh EEDENOO

Nyarlathotep­
English lyrics
by Cristina Rizen and Inanna Gruner

Crying out from the Red Land
Came a man of darkness
With evil bloody secrets

He knew the Black Pharaoh
Servant to the Faceless Sphinx God
He gave me the book of the dead

Nyarlathotep
Slaughterer bringing nigh those who are detested
Nyarlathotep

Tumult and time bent
Mutilation and death in every land
Unleashing fear, creeping downward

Messenger to those who are detested
Prepare a way for the Void and the Evil Ones
Terror in the harem of pestilences

How did you guys figure out how to pronounce the Middle Egyptian

I finally got around to downloading the album from iTunes. Very nice work, guys!

And I have at least one friend who I'm sure will buy it (or one track, at least) just because there's a song in Egyptian. (She's a Khemetic reconstructionist--and a bit eccentric, even for my friends. )