(written by Islander)
(If you think the artwork is bizarre, wait until you hear the music.)
Cave Moth have released six EPs over the last 13 years. They have evolved into a music collective whose members are spread across the U.S. East Coast, and that group is now poised to release yet another EP in November, one named Useless Spawn, Sapient Husk that represents an important next step in the band’s evolution.
The EP includes a re-recording of “Rabbit’s Foot” from their last album, Paralytic Love (which we premiered here), along with two new songs, “Cartman” and “Clone“. What we have for you today is the premiere of “Clone“, as well as an extensive statement from Cave Moth that delves into what this mind-boggling song and the EP as a whole represent.
We’ll turn first to the song. It’s a ferocious head-scrambler of a high order, difficult to describe and almost equally difficult to comprehend, but undeniably thrilling (and destructive).
By average measures it’s not terribly long — just 2 1/2 minutes — but it’s significantly longer than many of Cave Moth’s outputs, and the band pack it to the brim with intricate levels of mayhem and madness, pulling out the stops on their fusion of mathcore and grindcore.
With drums clattering at hyperspeed and the bass brutishly slugging, the riffs come fast and furious — maniacally darting, writhing, screeching, and twitching, while the vocals veer in derangement from guttural roars to throat-rupturing shrieks. It’s like mad scientists performing berserk experiments in a war zone.
But then things shift. Sudden starts and stops throw listeners off-balance. Bits of eerily shimmering and quivering sound can be heard in between catastrophic sonic detonations and quick but un-balancing drum escapades. The riffing freakishly squirms and squeals, but the raging multi-toned vocals remain violently unhinged.
And now, here is Cave Moth’s statement about the new record, including the song you’ve just heard:
In preparation for our next album, we wanted to dip our toes into doing more at-home production and, more importantly, find a way to better capture what Cave Moth actually sounds like as a live band….
Since the release of Paralytic Love, we’ve been lucky enough to play with some amazing drummers. In July 2025, we toured with Florida drummer Kyle Haneski, and in January 2026 we managed to capture some of his energy in the recordings for these songs.
This release was our first adventure into utilizing a full band in the recording process—no programmed drums. Since the band acts as a Music Collective, all of our members are spread out across the East Coast and we have to record our parts isolated from one another. We spent a long time coordinating equipment for the drum recordings and figuring out how to make the whole process work as a band while keeping the rawness of an actual Cave Moth performance. The result is probably the closest we’ve ever gotten in production to the raw and ferocious sound we want from the band.
We’re especially excited to show off the two new songs: “Clone” and “Cartman“. These songs represent a refocusing of all the elements that appeared on Paralytic Love. That album was written in just a few weeks during the COVID lockdowns, while these songs have been given a lot more time and TLC.
“Cartman” is short and sweet, but dynamically, it reminds us of those old MySpace bands. That feeling of crawling through pages and clicking on random bands. It taps into the chaotic, immediate quality of that era that initially made a lot of this kind of music exciting to us. “Cartman” is a nod to its namesake, the lovable mischief maker from South Park. A frustrated rant about the modern zeitgeist of disinformation and ignorance as it relates to the sociopolitical atmosphere of today. It’s about believing your own lies, bad-faith actors, and the histrionics of the intentionally ignorant.
“Clone,” alternatively, is a bit of a departure for us. Clocking in at over two minutes, the song gives us room for a much more varied listening experience, delivering pummeling riff-after-riff carnage for the first half of the song before building into an off-time finale. Lyrically, “Clone” is more of a pseudo-sci-fi concept about “clone degradation” – the repeated reiteration of a clone, becoming weaker and further from the source each time, the agony of realizing this, and begging for release. It is sort of a parallel to Generation Loss in Computer Science or the concept of reincarnation with the ultimate goal of being freed from the cycle.
This EP is ultimately a snapshot of what Cave Moth is evolving into as a band. This release brings back core members from the Cave Moth Collective and tightens its identity as a band to be reckoned with in modern mathcore. Useless Spawn, Sapient Husk is tougher, more deliberate, and gives a glimpse of where the band is going next.
Useless Spawn, Sapient Husk Was Recorded By:
Dan Wolfson: Vocals
Daniel Quinn: Guitars
Fred O’Leary: Bass
Michael Hollinger: Guitars
Kyle Haneski: Drums
The record is set for release on November 20th. It comes recommended for fans of Animosity, Gaza, and Maruta. For more info about the band and this new record, check out the links below.
CAVE MOTH:
https://cavemoth.carrd.co
https://cavemoth.bandcamp.com
https://www.facebook.com/cavemoth