Album Review: Frogg – Eclipse

Bad: Frogg | Album: Eclipse | Genre: Progressive death metal, Technical death metal | Year: 2025

From: New York, USA | Label: Independent

For fans of: Atheist, Atvm, Between the Buried and Me, Vektor

Bandcamp

I covered Frogg’s debut EP, A Reptilian Dystopia, back in 2020, and I really liked it. It was one of my favorite short releases of that year. In the intervening years, they’ve put out a handful of songs (all of which show up here), but now they’re finally back with their first LP.

Frogg’s brand of music is fast, dense, and powerful. I often have somewhat mixed feelings on tech-death bands, as it’s easy for such acts to get lost in their own intricate guitar lines. Frogg, though, demonstrates both a keen ear for melody and a certain compositional ambition often lacking elsewhere in this micro-genre. 

Plus, just look at that album cover. 10/10, no notes.

Eerie keyboards open up “Walpurgisnacht”, and even though it’s only a brief intro, it’s an effective mood-setter. The inclusion of organ, piano, and acoustic guitar shows that the band has some higher creative aims than just laying down the most finger-breaking riffs they can. Even once the metallic meat of the song comes in, there are occasional jazz-tinged keyboard lines that call to mind passages on Atheist’s Elements. Rhythms are often irregular, and the leads vary between flashy scalar runs and odder modal explorations. The ending is somewhat sudden and jarring, however.

“Life Zero” roars from the get-go, and the occasional clean guitar lick and bit of backing vocals goes a long way in varying the sound palette. The backing vocals, in particular, remind me a lot of Vektor’s “Charging the Void”. In fact, a lot of this album reminds me of Vektor’s overall style, if Vektor were tech-death (if that makes sense). Flashes of major-key brilliance shine through and help to break up what might be an otherwise-impenetrable tangle of riffs.

“Dandelion”, while solid, is one of the less-distinct songs on the album. I really like the occasional stab of watery clean guitar, but aside from that, not a ton necessarily stands out here. I still like it, though.

The nine-minute, two part title track comes next. Its first section, “Blind Bakunawa”, features some weird jazzy licks, and I also like the way Frogg occasionally plays around with stereo panning. The bass in this song is wiry and sharp, and I love how forward it is. The backing vocals show up again here, occasionally lending an ethereal ambiance.

Part two, “Sickened by Silence”, fades in on some acoustic guitar and wordless vocals that give it some vaguely “world music” vibes. Death metal soon storms back in. The guitar lines here are especially stuttering, and they’ve got a nearly percussive quality. That quiet theme from the intro does reemerge, acting as the backing to a brief and flashy solo and offering a much-appreciated bit of breathing room.

“Interspecific Hybrid Species” features some nice synth pads. They flesh out parts of this song in a pleasing way, and other moments are more stripped-back and herky-jerky.

“Wake Up” is my favorite song on the album. The opening passage is majestic and melodic, with rapid guitar runs and heavenly pads filling in the background. The band’s keyboard player provides clean vocals on this track, and her voice is a powerful counterpoint to the usual growls. The structure of this song feels purposeful as it cycles through multiple sections. More jazz touches are evident in quieter moments, and the band does an incredible job at keeping the energy up without becoming exhausting. Among other tricks the band squeezes in are Vocoded vocals, heavy doses of dissonance, and some passages where synthesizer takes the lead. There’s a ton crammed into this song, but it all holds together and makes sense. The climax of the song feels genuinely epic.

Some Eastern-tinged ambiance opens “Sun Stealer”, giving some much needed breathing room. An oud or other lute and a tabla set a nearly-meditative mood before launching into more metal. Those Indic influences remain in the guitar lines, and some elements of chiptune can be heard in the synth parts.

“Double Vision Roll” has a melodic opening riff that draws from classic heavy metal. Even though this is unquestionably a tech-death song, this is probably the most “accessible” cut on this album. Melody is a strong focus, and the riffs, while complex, are not smothering.

Eclipse closes on “Omni Trigger”. In contrast to the preceding song, the guitars here are especially speedy, with tons of runs and arpeggi. The rhythm often stutters and threatens to fully break down, but everything always pulls together in the end.

Eclipse is a very strong debut LP. Frogg showed a lot of promise on their first EP, and they’ve demonstrated here that they can deliver consistently. This is a dense, somewhat challenging album, but if you’re into some of the more extreme varieties of metal, you’ll probably like this.

Score: 90/100