Style: progressive metal, post-metal (harsh vocals)
Recommended for fans of: The Ocean, Intronaut
Country: Australia
Release date: 16 April 2025
For the most part, this gig is pretty awesome, but a few things do suck: getting hate mail, interacting with my colleague Chris, and most of all, frustratingly realizing there is too much interesting music to possibly cover all myself. I delegate to my peers here as much as I can, but even then I don’t have enough little scribes to write all the reviews I want written. At the Subway, we at least write up “Missed Album” reviews during December and January, but those require a certain score threshold, leaving an endless procession of worthwhile 7-7.5/10s to slip through the cracks of our coverage year after year. In 2024, one of the strongest albums I never had the chance to cover despite wanting to was Cave Sermon’s sophomore release, Divine Laughter. Thankfully, after only a year, Charlie Park has released his next album under the Cave Sermon moniker. I won’t let his music go unsung on this blog twice in a row.
Fragile Wings is wholly unlike its unreviewed predecessor, however. Divine Laughter hit hard with in-your-face dissonant riffs; Fragile Wings more subtly ensnares the listener, making use of addictingly shimmery melodies. Both styles of Cave Sermon are post-metal, yet they lie on two sides of the same coin. As much as I enjoyed the heft of Divine Laughter, Fragile Wings’ more gentle stylings elevate Cave Sermon beyond my lofty expectations. In a genre of metal I often find lethargic, Cave Sermon are outstandingly dynamic rhythmically and melodically. Park’s drumming in particular is electric, constantly shifting tempos and stresses in a way that perfectly accentuates the melodic contours in a way I didn’t quite realize was possible as a non-drummer myself. And although Park goes ham on the kit, often incorporating straight up nasty fills into places you wouldn’t expect, the performance doesn’t ever distract from the other elements because of the production, which endows the kit with a light, airy tone that synergizes well with the gleaming post-metal leads.
Cave Sermon writes riffs in a beautifully grotesque way, reminding me most of the undersung Stone Healer. While Park dropped the grime between albums, there is still a snaking dissonance slithering through the riffs across the album: the technique sounds damn cool. The section around 4:15 in “Hopeless Magic” shows this off, as does the addicting trem-picked up-and-down of the main riff of “Moloch.” For largely sticking to open chords, Cave Sermon write deceptively hooky melodies, too. The final minutes of “Sunless Morning” have a particularly ear-catching melody, utilizing an exotic scale, a psychedelic guitar tone, and Sermon-y drumming to nail the climax after the track’s lengthy crescendo.
What brings Fragile Wings to the next level in terms of intrigue is the strong blackgaze influence integral to the composition at large. Build-ups and crescendos are expected from any post-metal band, but Cave Sermon manage to transform their most impactful sections into tremolo-picked guitar parts, achieving the catharsis which atmospheric black metal allows for without changing the straight-edged post-metal underpinnings of the sound. The blackgaze sections on Fragile Wings are breathtaking and are always sublime highlights—each buildup achieves a gratifying conclusion. The most intense moments of “Hopeless Magic,” “Moloch,” and “Three-Headed Moth” are euphoric for two reasons: Park is an excellent composer whose post-metal songs allow for massive buildup despite their short length, AND clean-toned trem-picking is one of the greatest things possible. Combine the two on top of the awesome drumming, and no wonder Fragile Wings is such a success.
While I can guarantee it’s one of the best post-metal releases you’ll hear in 2025, Fragile Wings isn’t without flaw. On Divine Laughter, Park brought on Miguel Méndez to perform vocals, and his approach was more varied than Park’s; additionally, the more monotonous style of harsh vocals just doesn’t gel as well with the cleaner sound this time around. Despite the dynamism of the performances and writing, Fragile Wings falls into post-metal cliches like slightly vapid buildups a couple of times, notably in the first half of “Sunless Morning” and in the final minutes of closer “Ancient for Someone,” a bland finish to such an evocative album. Finally, adding something to provide a little extra oomph could really propel Fragile Wings into album of the year territory—I imagine a sparing usage of strings or horns—but as the album stands, the riffs are intricate enough to be satisfying sans ornamentation.
I’m extremely pleased to not only bring Cave Sermon to you, dear readers, but to proclaim that Charlie Park has improved his already excellent post-metal in the past year-and-change. Fragile Wings is a breath of fresh air for the genre: brilliant, dynamic performances, tight songwriting, and sublime crescendos, one of 2025’s most essential post- releases. Oh, and make sure to check out Divine Laughter after you’re done with this one—you’ll dig it.
Recommended tracks: Hopeless Magic, Moloch, Three Headed Moth
You may also like: Aeviterne, Sermon, Inter Arma, Skagos, East of the Wall, Mico, Stone Healer
Final verdict: 8/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Instagram | Metal-Archives
Label: independent
Cave Sermon is:
– Charlie Park (everything)
0 Comments