I also rank my early work with Phlegethon pretty high. As a teenager I worked my ass off for those Phlegethon songs, and I still like them. Especially the ones on the 'Neutral Forest' demo from 1990. It's just the bad production and crappy performance that totally ruin them. People might have a hard time figuring out how good the song material is because of this lousy production and performance. If you can see beyond that you might be impressed. We were too young and too unaware to record them properly back then. But well, that's about the past. I'm taking care of not repeating that mistake with Hooded Menace or with any of my newer bands.
- Lasse Pyykkö / Hooded Menace interview, Noise Creep, 2010
PHLEGETHON completed the recording of their second demo on this day in 1990. Although the band never recorded an album, their demos and other recordings were compiled in 2010 for the Drifting in the Crypt double CD. Members are still active, notably Lasse Pyykkö who formed HOODED MENACE in 2007 and Teemu Hannonen who joined HM in 2012.
Just look at the lyrics of my and Teemu's old band Phlegethon (active '88-'92). It's pretty weird stuff and it was written about 30 years ago. The darkly surreal and dreamy approach seems to be more natural to us than in-your-face horror.
- Lasse Pyykkö / Hooded Menace interview, Metal Phenomenon, 2018