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HEALTH, Ice Nine Kills & Periphery Join Forces for One Reason: Scoring the 4 Boss Battles in "Crimson Moon"

Indie studio ProbablyMonsters brought together noise rock, horror-inspired metalcore, and technical djent — three wildly different flavors of metal — alongside YouTube guitarist Jared Dines, with each artist crafting an original boss battle track.

Yu-Ting Lin, Managing Editor
HEALTH, Ice Nine Kills & Periphery Join Forces for One Reason: Scoring the 4 Boss Battles in "Crimson Moon"

HEALTH, Ice Nine Kills, and Periphery aren't names you'd normally expect to see on the same poster. Noise-driven industrial rock, horror-movie metalcore, and technical djent sit so far apart on the spectrum that pairing them almost feels deliberately contrarian. Throw in Jared Dines, a YouTuber who built his name on guitar cover videos, and you've got four acts each tasked with the same mission: write a song for a specific boss fight in a video game.

That game is Crimson Moon, an action RPG from indie studio ProbablyMonsters launching September 1st. Set in a gothic "high renaissance" world, players take on the role of a Nephilim — a hybrid of human and angel bred for combat and destined to protect humanity — as they push deeper into the besieged city of Gildenarch. The developers describe the combat system as built on "brutal precision" and "deep character progression," with support for both solo play and two-player co-op that adjusts pacing depending on party size.

The level structure dictates the soundtrack's logic: clear three district zones in a row before facing a world boss; take down all three world bosses before finally confronting the ultimate hell-tier final boss. The overall score comes courtesy of Chris Wilson and music director Steve Pardo, while HEALTH, Ice Nine Kills' Ricky Armellino, Periphery's Misha Mansoor, and Jared Dines each contributed one original track — each earmarked for a specific boss encounter.

"It's an honor to work with the team at ProbablyMonsters," said Armellino. "This game blends gothic and classical elements with heavy metal, and writing these tracks was a blast — I can't wait for players to hear them next month." Game director David Lesperance added that the team aimed to make the game as accessible as possible, with pricing reflecting that goal: "With the gothic art style, co-op gameplay, and this epic metal soundtrack, we've built something really distinctive for September."

Crimson Moon launches simultaneously on PC, Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5 on September 1st. Pricing and additional track details have yet to be announced.

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