Back so soon? Sallow Moth battles yet again for attention during a busy time with two complimentary EPs of hi-fi metal beats to ascend to – and wins.
Release date: November 21, 2025 | Lilang Isla | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter | Bandcamp
When you were a kid, did you pick Pokémon Red or Blue? I’m sure many kids were like me and could only afford one through family funds so I picked Red, getting it around… 1998 or 1999? Red was my favorite color after all, so plugging the bright red cartridge into my red-ass Game Boy was akin to spiritual ascension. Then I picked Bulbasaur – the GOAT of starters – and achieved elementary-age nirvana, before the blanket of malaise from 9/11 tucked us millennials into a bed of some weird, shared, unspoken change that sticks with us well into this day (I have a big theory on this – some other time though).
These days, there’s many ways to enjoy games and other things where you don’t have to choose between thing one or thing two (or three or four) – if you care enough and have the means, you can just enjoy whatever, legality be damned. I think Sallow Moth‘s Garry Brents appreciates that instinct and as such has given us the Pokémon Red and Blue of arcane progressive death metal with Deformity in Ceremony and Blue Permutations, two EPs that are ‘side quests to Mossbane Lantern’ (which I fucking loved) per Brents’ Bandcamp description.
All ten of these songs were written and produced within the last 12 months meaning they do share creative signposting with Mossbane Lantern and it shows – not a bad thing at all. There’s differences too, unlike Pokemon games which usually only feature minor, mostly inconsequential differences as far as I know outside of unique Pokémon sometimes (I stopped playing after gen 2 so maybe I’m wrong). As such, choosing a fave out of these two EPs is a rough endeavor, but if you liked Mossbane Lantern for one reason or another, you will surely find at least one of these EPs just as enjoyable.
Let’s start with Blue Permutations. Four songs and 27 minutes means a lot going on in a little amount of space. It’s immediately apparent with how it shares DNA with Mossbane Lantern as this EP carries a lot of that album’s idiosyncrasies and oddities. The creeping nu metal-esque intro of “Aethercave Rumble of Blue Permutations”, the jazz-adjacent accents of “Ancient Cocoon Plug in the Outer Rim Dimensions”, they capture a lot of my favorite aspects of this era of Sallow Moth. The former track especially is just a fucking tour de force for metal that has a clear easy-going side to it. Melodies materialize as if brought to form by mana binding to itself in the air, the pacing is adventurous and almost never as fast as you’d expect out of death metal – I love that about it. Some sections even remind me of Michiru Yamane‘s work on Castlevania: Symphony of the Night and how she melded gothic symphonic/rock aesthetic to smoother tones. The middle of the song with its more angular and busy writing (and that damn bass!) is a dead ringer for modern Carcass as well which… well, you don’t need to really to sell me any further with a description like that. This shit rips.
“Orange Slime Room Beyond the Blue Fire Goddess” is the best of both worlds, marrying delightfully alien synth runs on top of tactile metal that, in case you forgot, Brents does all himself outside of a few guests which this song has, like the return of Dave Norman of Zegema Beach Records fame and Cory Peterson of THÆTAS on vocals. It’s the best song about the hubris of a man accidentally turning himself into an orange slime with immature magic, presumably doomed to a life of being XP fodder for other adventurers more savvy than him – bummer, dude. Brents once again pays tribute to his Filipino roots with “Ang Asul na Mapa” which means ‘The Blue Map‘, the most sundering and tonally metal song on this EP, short as it is sweet.
Blue Permutations is Mossbane Lantern distilled to its calmer side, which might help explain its particular aesthetic of deep blue shades on the cover done by dark surrealist Unggun Yulianto, a human figure sprouting either from or into a voidal capsule in the earth. It’s all so different and weird without losing identity or purpose. If it’s generally too soft for you, then Deformity in Ceremony is where you want to be as it’s loaded with more conventional weight also without losing the Sallow Moth branding.
Nearly the same length as Blue Permutations, Deformity in Ceremony is the mood foil to it, focusing more on the progressive, occasionally brutal death metal foundation that’s gotten us to this point – never forget where you came from, right? Songs are more traditional lengths, but no less expansive and wild. “Torn Vessel” is probably my favorite with how it’s very liberal with pinch harmonics and clean guitar melodies buried under eruptive drums. “Recurring Whisper” teases with ’90s drum beats that you’d hear introing drum ‘n’ bass tracks or breakbeat missives, but gradually evolves into torment incarnate with ass-beating riffs and roughness. “Mangled in the Pond” collapses the roof on you with intensity so it can forge atmosphere that leads into the closing track, “Dendritic Rivers of Pamugara”, which ends things on a serene note. I like the folk soul it has, and it leads quite well into Blue Permutations as a result. Though no preference or recommendation was prescribed by Brents that I could find, it seems as though these EPs were meant to be listened to in that order as it gives the projects a more transcendental feel sonically.
Because I am unapologetically rap-brained, I can’t help but think of loose comparisons to Kendrick Lamar‘s untitled unmastered. project that succeeded his musical and cultural zeitgeist-nuking album, To Pimp A Butterfly. They’re similar in intention – formed by leftovers or asides to the bigger project in question and in some ways arguably capitalize on the sonic concepts and tones better than it as well because it didn’t have to be burdened as much by the greater thematic concept (which is why they didn’t make it on the bigger project in the first place). It’s an epilogue of epic proportions. I mean, damn, these two EPs together are almost 50% longer than Mossbane Lantern itself! Yet another way you know Brents is from my generation where albums were regularly 45+ minutes long and EPs were indeed 15-30 minutes. While I usually balk at deluxe albums or little extras like this being released so close to a larger LP, Garry Brents really made it worth the while.
I can’t name many bands at all that can drop a full-length with massive concepts and genre-obliterating approaches to vast fanfare, then drop even more music of similar scale and quality mere months later and still manage to wrest attention at a time when we’re all supposed to be reflecting on the year and doing clean-up on things we missed. Honestly, I have to give credit to where Brents seems to get much of his imagination from as well. He’s an avid Magic: The Gathering player and a fan of video games like me – immersing yourself in those incredible worlds which are creations of others, yes, can still stimulate so many ideas and thoughts of your own. It’ll make you do things you never thought you could or wanted to in the first place. In that regard, you can view Deformity in Ceremony and Blue Permutations as booster packs to the base deck provided by Mossbane Lantern. I promise it’s worth the investment and should prove to expand your own horizons, wherever they may be.
