Hello Metalheads! This is John back with another album review! This time a brand new album that came out in March 7th, it is called Eclipse by Frogg.
I first heard about this group when on a death metal sharing page on Facebook. I went through their singles off of this album before it came out, then eventually through their EP and I was hooked. This band manages to be progressive, technical within the confines of death metal. But they also experiment all over the place with a ton of different ideas, sounds and flourishes like the best. In their bio(which I think is self written) they claim to be for fans of Between the Buried and Me(Btbam), Children of Bodom, Periphery and Galneryus. The first thing I thought of was Btbam but with a melodic death metal flair!
I was messaging with Sky Moon Clark a bit after I won a Bandcamp code for the album(holy shit thank you again by the way!). He was telling me that they had scheduling conflicts so that is why there are so many bass players in the credits of the album. I was genuinely curious so i had to throw that question out there. The bass is always present and noticeable in every single aspect of this album. Sky is also the main songwriter for the band, he also plays guitar and does the vocals.
The first three times I spun this album I was purely just trying to wrap my mind around this dense monster. My motto is “the more dense the music, the better” so this is perfect for my ears. I’ve talked about this before but this composition style is definitely a stream of consciousness composition with the rules of typically accepted standards thrown right out the window. The sections are thrown together but with transitions, without those some of this might not make any sense to listeners ears. The way they snap from groove to groove or riff to riff is quite amazing! The amount of shear detail packed into this 45 minute journey is really incredible!
My favorite section of the album is Sun Stealer and Double Vision Roll! Those two tracks are great together. Sun Stealer starts off with a little vamp and build up into the meat of the track. When it does start it has a nice bouncy feel that is nice and “headbangable.” At the 1:59 mark there is a quick 2 second break with just the keyboard playing a funny little blurb that makes me giggle every-time I hear it. The other really cool thing in this track is the keyboard that plays the lead guitar line in unison a lot of the time. It also plays the little flourishes between sections quite often too. This really shows off some of the Children of Bodom influence.
Double Vision Roll starts off with a good chuggy riff with a great groove under it. The pre chorus and chorus of this track are what really shine here though! It has a textbook Metalcore style build and main riff in the chorus that bring in nostalgia and joy. This also feels like Children of Bodom worship to me as I think they have sections that are kind of like that too!
I know it’s still relatively early in the year, but this is the best thing I’ve heard this year. The way they managed to make a progressive melodic and damn near technical death metal amalgamation sound this great is truly something. This is an easy 10/10 and will be inconstant rotation for sometime to come. As always don’t forget to stream and buy the music if you like it! Links to their socials and steaming sites will be provided below!
https://music.apple.com/us/album/eclipse/1788632766
https://www.facebook.com/share/1HqV2uWVfk/?mibextid=wwXIfr
https://www.youtube.com/@froggbandofficial
https://www.instagram.com/froggband/?hl=en
https://open.spotify.com/album/3MNRSdrsjZjvfD63Xdnc88?si=-9lYEWwJRIaAs82VxyqLoA
https://froggofficial.bandcamp.com/album/eclipse
Eclipse by Frogg
