FROGG is a group I should be enamored with on paper. Their earlier offerings encompass every component that ought to make for an exceptional brutal/technical death metal record. Blisteringly rapid guitar work, relentless blasts and fills, and guttural vocals paired with a thematic/lyrical focus rooted deeply in all things extraterrestrial. Regrettably, the production quality of those prior records didn’t hold up against the other elements that could’ve propelled this band into the upper echelon of death metal. While other tech-death managed to construct a suffocating sonic atmosphere, FROGG often came across as somewhat clinical. With Eclipse, that narrative has shifted entirely.
A stark transformation is noticeable from the moment Eclipse begins. You’re instantly greeted by a dizzying barrage of scorching riffs and a pummeling snare that feels like it’s channeling energy directly from a star system. There’s a newfound murkiness and interstellar ferocity that was absent in the band’s earlier material. Consider the breakdown at the close of the opener Walpurgisnacht—it’s the ideal fusion of sheer brutality and cosmic ambiance, serving as a strong indicator of just how much these New Yorkers have evolved. Over time, FROGG have figured out how to straddle the line between scorching, face-melting guitar assaults and an atmosphere reminiscent of drifting weightlessly through the void as your oxygen steadily depletes. And the payoff from these refinements is immense.
Eclipse represents the distilled essence of what’s always driven their previous work. It’s vast and obliterating, jarring and feral, eccentric and delightfully bizarre—and it delivers all this with more head-nodding, grimace-inducing groove than ever before. These songs are as infectious as they are ruthless. This is the album where the band truly comes into their own. In a year already packed with stellar death metal releases, FROGG has dropped a record that can hold its own among the genre’s finest. Eclipse is a 40-plus-minute onslaught of unrelenting heaviness that never loses sight of, and finally perfects, the atmosphere they’ve so desperately sought to capture since their inception.
Grab Eclipse from Bandcamp, and make sure to follow FROGG on Instagram.
Eclipse is a 40-plus-minute onslaught of unrelenting heaviness that never loses sight of, and finally perfects, the atmosphere they’ve so desperately sought to capture since their inception.
