Crimson Moon puts a heavy metal score behind its worst moments, and the Vahlak encounter is the one built on a two-name collaboration: industrial rockers HEALTH and Ice Nine Kills guitarist/vocalist Ricky Armellino. ProbablyMonsters brought in outside musicians specifically for boss fights, and this is the only track on the album credited to both of them.
Quick answer: The HEALTH and Ricky Armellino boss collaboration is credited on the Crimson Moon soundtrack as “Rite of Desolation,” track 18 of 34. The album has been out since September 4th, 2026.
Crimson Moon boss music credits: The four guest tracks
Crimson Moon has three world bosses plus a final fight, and each one got an original metal track from a guest musician. Everything else on the album is composer work, so these four are the only songs with feature credits.
| Track | Featured musician | Album position |
|---|---|---|
| Eye of the Abyss | Misha Mansoor (Periphery) | 2 |
| Rot and Bone | Ricky Armellino | 6 |
| Cells of Perdition | Jared Dines | 12 |
| Rite of Desolation | HEALTH, Ricky Armellino | 18 |
Rite of Desolation is the Vahlak collaboration. Armellino appears twice on the album, once alone and once alongside HEALTH, which makes track 18 the one to look for if you want the pairing rather than either act on its own.
HEALTH’s own social post about the game went up on launch day, September 1st, 2026, ahead of the soundtrack release later that week.
How the collaboration was set up
The score was handled in-house first. Lead composer Chris Wilson wrote the bulk of the album, with Steve Pardo serving as music manager, and the two coordinated the guest sessions for the world bosses and the final encounter. The guest list was a deliberate match for the art direction rather than a marketing add-on.
The project pays tribute to classic heavy-metal themes and imagery, so we felt prominent musicians were the right additions to complete its score.
Armellino’s side of it was written to sit next to the game’s gothic high renaissance setting instead of fighting it, which is why the boss tracks lean on orchestral and choral textures as much as guitars.
I felt deeply honored to be invited to work with ProbablyMonsters’ outstanding team on Crimson Moon. This epic action RPG blends gothic and classical influences with heavy metal, and creating the tracks was a great experience.
How to reach a boss fight and hear the track in game
Boss music only plays if you survive long enough to trigger a boss, and Crimson Moon gates those encounters behind consecutive mission runs rather than story progress.
Difficulty scales dynamically per mission, and higher settings pay out better rewards, so you can lower the pressure on a boss attempt without losing access to it.
Where to get the Crimson Moon soundtrack
If you would rather not fight for it, the full 34-track album is sold separately on Steam for $9.99 and is also available to stream. The guest tracks are included, so “Rite of Desolation” is on the album whether or not you have beaten the fight it belongs to.
You will know the purchase went through when the soundtrack appears in your Steam library as a separate entry and the audio files land in the game’s install folder. The base game itself is $19.99 on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, Steam, and the Epic Games Store, with a $29.99 Deluxe Edition that adds the Ceremonial Armor Set, the Axe of the Gods weapon cosmetic, and an expansion due later.
