The Darkest of the Hillside Thickets formed in January 1992[1][2] after meeting at Fraser Valley College in Abbotsford, British Columbia.

[2] Even though they "had no musical training or experience"[2] they were able to create a three song set list and play the opening act for their first show.

[2][1] Atkinson and Banks decided to create a band around the Cthulhu mythos because it was a topic they were interested in, and it was a unique "niche that [needed] to be filled".

[9][10] The singer Toren said the album was "heavily inspired by the science fiction movies and reruns we’d all grown up with like Lost in Space and Angry Red Planet".

[12][10] In 2002 the Thickets collaborated with Wizards of the Coast to release Let Sleeping Gods Lie - an all-Cthulhu Mythos themed CD.

[13] The album contained twelve previously-released Thickets tracks, and had a special tie-in with the Call of Cthulhu game rules.

[4] The album recounts the tale of a marine biologist who found his body had "been possessed by an alien intelligence" and works to find out what happened.

[19] Their performance at the event led to their previously unreleased song "Shhh...." being included as a downloadable track in the PAX 2008 Collection for the video game Rock Band.

"One thing I’m proud of ... is that while we don’t necessarily take a Lovecraft poem or story and directly put it to music ... [our songs are] steeped in Lovecraftian lore.

[4] While the singer Toren admits to writing "95% of the band's lyrics",[2] he attests that the rest of the Thickets' creation process is a group effort.

[2] He also notes that the band uses deadlines as external motivation to create: "As a collection of lazy procrastinators, we will usually 'throw our hat over the fence' by booking time at a recording studio.

[2] A large part of The Thickets live shows involves the band members wearing "imaginative and bizarre" stage costumes.

The band has gone through various iterations over the years, from plush gug and fungi from Yuggoth outfits to the red jumpsuit/astronaut motif for their Spaceship Zero concerts, to their Satyr costumes, and most recently, their early twentieth century nautical styles featuring mustaches.

The Thickets have toured across North America a few times, performing with such bands as GWAR, Dayglo Abortions, MC Frontalot, Freezepop, BlöödHag,[33][34] Bad Brains and Nomeansno.

[44] Drummer Jordan Pratt, former bassist/video director Bob Fugger, and former guitarist Chris Woods formed and co-hosted comedy podcast Speedway Squad.

Upon Fugger's departure, Pratt and Woods were joined by Thickets guitarist Warren Banks to create a new podcast, Horsetrack Hooligans.