Frogg – Eclipse

In 2009, New York spawned a new band with the odd name of Frogg. Around ten years later they released their first single ‘Ancient Rain’. This track was then part of an EP released in January 2020 entitled ‘A Reptilian Dystopia’. 2024 saw three more singles released and now in 2025 comes their first full-length album “Eclipse” (Which you can now check out in our exclusive album premiere stream over here:  https://theprogspace.com/frogg-eclipse-album-premiere/). Their musical style is a kaleidoscope of genres, with a real melting pot of influences.

The band’s mission seems to be to create a quirky live experience to the backdrop of technical but chaotic material. The opening track ‘Walpurgisnacht’ has an unusual subject matter. Translating as Walpurgis Night it relates to a belief in Northern Germany that every May 1^st Witches gather on the Blocksberg at night to cause mischief. The Blocksberg is the alternative name for The Brocken which is the highest peak in the Harz Mountain Range and Northern Germany. The music is also mischievous and yes, quirky.

The band is made up of four members, all but one of whom are on the album. New live bassist Ethan Emery joined after production had finished. One member that stands out is vocalist/guitarist Sky Moon Clark. Now, I have to say from the start, I think his guitar playing is fantastic, but I’m not a fan of his growly vocals. I will qualify that by saying there are also some clean singing vocalists that I don’t like, I’m not just having a downer on growls. Drummer Will Brown plays on the whole album, co wrote songs and all the drum parts on the album and Emma Rae features on keyboards and clean vocals.

A selection of other players also add their contributions throughout the ten tracks. Notably new live guitarist Brett Fairchild who appears on half the tracks. Anyway, moving on to the next track, ‘Life Zero’ is an angry, speedy affair. The aggressiveness is tempered with some mellower parts and a great guitar solo. By now I’m already starting to notice the vocals less. The tempo doesn’t relent in ‘Dandelion’ even bordering on thrash metal at points. Words such as cacophony or pandemonium spring to mind, specifically, it’s precise and complex, and at the same time utter chaos.

The twin title tracks, ‘Eclipse I Blind Bakunawa’ and ‘Eclipse II Sickened by Silence’ are an interesting pair. The former is described by Sky Moon Clarke as “Oedipus’s tale meets getting sick to your stomach”. Well, in Greek mythology Oedipus blinds himself and in Philippine mythology, Bakunawa is a serpent-like dragon that eats the moon. Make of all that what you will. Whether the music reflects these things I know not but who cares, it’s heavy and complex and a bit crazy.

Of these two tracks I prefer the latter, as it is predominately instrumental with some stunning guitar work. Again, there’s a mixture of genres involved, taking in tech death, djent, fusion, melodeath and orchestral black metal.

Tackling climate change and its potential consequences is a very topical subject for a song. Frogg’s version manifests itself as ‘Interspecific Hybrid Species’ in which the tempo goes up and down through the gears. There’s an odd passage in the middle that recalls memories of theme tunes to TV shows such as ‘This is your life’.

In an exception to the norm (if anything on this album can be classed as normal) female vocals are introduced in ‘Wake up’. These vocals are clean which makes a nice change from the growls and are provided by Emma Rae along with keyboards. It’s the closest thing to a pop song on the album, but obviously still way off that.

Drummer Will Brown possesses many world instruments all of which he enjoys playing. He uses some of these to create an eerie oriental sound for the intro to ‘Sun Seeker’. After this eclectic start, chaos is restored and resumes for the remainder of the track.

The shortest and penultimate song ‘Double Vision Roll’ is pretty much straight forward technical death metal. Bizarrely this easy listening compared to the rest of the album and the disorderly dismount that is the finale to come.

And so, this exhausting 45 minutes arrives at its denouement, and they’ve saved the most tumultuous track to end on. Concerning the matter of collapsing galaxies, ‘Omni Trigger’ supposedly reflects the chaos involved in those situations. In this parting shot there is a break with more from Will Brown and his amazing world instruments.

Occasionally, just occasionally, I have the desire, albeit briefly, to go off-piste with my music listening choice. This normally takes the form of something more extreme and challenging than my usual playlist. That which is outside of my musical comfort zone you could say. Well, I might just have found the very thing in Frogg to scratch that itch, for a while at least.

This style of music is very niche, and I can’t imagine it will have mass appeal. In the words of Jon Oliva of Savatage, “Madness reigns”. That aside, there is no denying that there is a lot of talent on show here. There is obviously a desire to produce something unusual and it will be interesting to see where they go from here.

Track List:

1. Walpurgisnacht
2. Life Zero
3. Dandelion
4. Eclipse I Blind Bukunawa
5. Eclipse II Sickened by Silence
6. Interspecific Hybrid Species
7. Wake Up
8. Sun Stealer
9. Double Vision Roll
10. Omni Trigger