Best packaging of the year goes to Darkest of the Hillside Thickets for their Cthulhu Strikes Back CD. The front cover has the Empire Strikes Back logo done perfecto to a ‘t’. Open it up and see the song lyrics superimposed over various cosmos. In the middle is the CD itself, safe and comfy. When the CD is taken out there is further mind-warping cosmos. There is lettering underneath zooming at you exactly like the Star Wars intro narration. Close the casing up, which, by the way, has a nice, smooth feel; no cost spared. Turn the package over and you get to see what the band looks like. They are physically altered to look like Star Wars characters from a Star Wars promo shot. Luke, Obi, Han, Chewbacca. this is done with a marvellous painting that has the quality of a realistic movie poster. I commend the artist (it says that his name is Chris “Chappy” Woods), because this is perfect! Now, how does it sound? Um, well, it’s pretty generic and dull metal, but the packaging is is incredible and the song ideas are great! There are songs based on ‘Rock Lords’ and much H. P. Lovecraft stuff. Ya, the lyrics are dumb, but the packaging! Okay, I liked the 11-minute art metal instrumental called Cthulhu Dreams. My friend Lester told me that Rudimentary Peni has done the whole Cthulhu thing better as a concept album, but can they equal this fine packaging? What a real packaging idea! Mixing up Lovecraft and Star Wars!
— Robert Dayton, Dispatches, TERMINAL CITY, volume 3 #88, May 18-25 1995
Dukes of AlHazred
