BLACK SEPTEMBER: GOOD BAND, TERRIBLE NAME

So Lambgoat tells me that Prosthetic Records’ latest sign is a band from Chicago, Black September. And trying to be a dutiful blogger, I’m listening this band for the first time now, and while their brand of black metal is nothing you haven’t heard before, it’s also pretty good stuff — nice riffage, appropriately vitriolic vocals, some songwriting chops… I could imagine this band being really fun live, too.

All of that being said, I really, really wish this band didn’t have the same moniker as the Palestinian terrorist group that kidnapped and murdered eleven Israeli athletes in addition to a West German police officer at the ’72 Munich Summer Olympics.

Let me clear — I am not accusing Black September (the band) of being in favor of killing Israelis. I have no knowledge of the political leanings of Black September (the band). For all I know they summer in Nahariya.

I am saying that they showed poor judgment in picking their band name, though, the same way Lemmy shows poor judgment by collecting an endless amount of Nazi paraphenilia, and Slayer shows poor judgment by calling their fanclub the Wehrmacht, and so on and so forth.

I know that there are people who are gonna say I’m being overly sensitive to this particular issue because I’m Jewish, but… I always find that argument kinda ridiculous. Would it be a-okay for me to start a metal band called The Ku Klux Klan? Hey, man, I don’t hate black people, I just think that alliteration sounds awesome!

Or how about a band called Westboro County Church? Or Gulag? Fuck it, let’s just start a group called al-Qaeda.

You see what I’m getting at.

Anyways, feel free to weigh in with your thoughts below. Prosthetic will re-release Black September’s 2010 album, The Forbidden Gates Beyond, on June 7.

-AR