BLACK SEPTEMBER

BLACK SEPTEMBER's "The Forbidden Gates Beyond" is a USBM album that you need to hear; that is, if you like your black metal brawny, hooky, and death injected. You can call it blackened death metal, deathly black metal, or black/death metal, all that matters is that the collision happened and out came "The Forbidden Gates Beyond". The stuff is good, very good.

Originally self-released in 2010 and wisely reissued by Prosthetic Records this year, "The Forbidden Gates Beyond" is one tough SOB, yet BLACK SEPTEMBER does more than bruise and batter; they make the songs memorable with just the right mix of black metal's menacing melody and old school death metal's punishing grooves. Like BOLT THROWER and GOD DETHRONED running a red light and T-boning WATAIN, the best of both worlds is what BLACK SEPTEMBER has concocted. The opening six-minute title track is one of two highlights; that main melody and terrific groove burns through flesh and bone right into the brain. And there it'll stay. What comes next is "Creation of Chaos", the other highlight with the riffs that kill and sections of two-beat gallop that are pure bliss. That those first two cuts start the album off with such strength does not mean that what follows is disappointment. Rather, consistency is maintained, whether the alternate blasts and rumbles of "Tyrants" or the SLAYER-slivered black/death wickedness of "The Absence of Life & Death", there is meat on the bone aplenty here.

Interestingly enough, everything seems to fall into place after the first few spins in a way that really makes that lethal black and death combo reign supreme. After that "The Forbidden Gates Beyond" will keep sucking you back in for another round and you'll not do a thing to keep it from happening. Maybe BLACK SEPTEMBER happened to record the album when the stars fell into perfect alignment or maybe this is a band that is really onto something and the best is yet to come. The smart money is on the latter.