September Mourning

September Mourning is a United States heavy metal group formed in 2009. It centres on a transmedia dark-culture project created by Emily Lazar and Marc Silvestri, with Lazar as the frontwoman, vocalist and screamer. The band combines music with a wider narrative that appears across comics and live performance.

Concept and storyline

The project revolves around a fictional character named September, described as a human-grim reaper hybrid who moves between the worlds of the living and the dead. In the story, her human side gives her the empathy to offer some human souls a second chance. Lazar first develops the storyline, and Silvestri becomes involved after she pitches the idea to him via Myspace. Together, they build the world and narrative around the character.

The project is designed as a story with a musical component rather than a conventional band concept. Its content appears on several media platforms, including music, comic books and live concerts. The comic books are published by Top Cow Productions and Image Comics.

Formation and early lineup

Lazar begins focusing on the music in early 2009. She writes songs with guitarist and programmer Chris Egert and guitarist James Duran, and the project tours with rotating drummers and bass players. After a move from New York to Los Angeles in late 2010, the lineup changes, with Lazar becoming the only constant member.

Releases and recordings

At San Diego Comic-Con in 2010, Top Cow Productions announces the September Mourning concept story, with a preview summary appearing in that year’s Holiday Special. In late 2011, MTV Geek announces a partnership with Marc Silvestri and September Mourning for webisodes, online comics and other media based on the characters, with David Hine attached as writer, although the webisodes do not materialise after MTV Geek is cancelled.

The band’s early album Melancholia is self-produced by Egert and Lazar from the first demo songs written by the group. It is released on Repo Records in Germany in 2012. The recording features guest drummer Ryan Seaman of Falling In Reverse and bassist Phil Buckman of Filter, and it is mixed and mastered by Dave Ogilvie.

A demo of “Before the Fall”, co-written and produced by Sahaj Ticotin, appears in a TNA Wrestling commercial for Hardcore Justice in 2012. The song is then released independently to iTunes and Spotify.

In 2013 the band plays the Schecter Guitars Party at NAMM and performs one-off shows in California while being shopped to labels. Later that year it signs to Virgin Records.

In 2014 Loudwire premieres “Children of Fate”, co-written by Sahaj Ticotin and produced by Howard Benson. In 2015 the band launches a Kickstarter campaign for the first comic issue connected to the storyline, funding the release in under 72 hours. Its debut EP, Eye of the Storm, is mixed and produced by Sahaj Ticotin and released in October 2015. The comic A Murder of Reapers is released alongside it through Top Cow Productions/Image Comics.

In 2016 the band signs to Sumerian Records and releases the video for “Eye of the Storm”. Its full-length album Volume II, produced by Sahaj Ticotin, arrives later that year together with the second comic issue, The Hand of Fate. An animated lyric video for “Skin And Bones” is also premiered.

In 2019 the group releases Volume III, an EP with four tracks: “Unholy”, “Hiding From Heaven”, “Madness” and “Overdose”. In 2020 “Wake The Dead” is announced as the first single from Volume IV.

Style and format

September Mourning is identified with heavy metal and also tagged as gothic metal, metalcore, metal, rock and alternative metal. Its work places the songs inside an ongoing fictional narrative, with the music used as one part of a broader storyworld.