Poland’s Black River are a bunch of dudes playing dudely dude rock for an audience of dudes. And just because I don’t feel that last sentence had enough “dudes” in it to properly convey the ultimate dudeliness of Black River: Dude.

Seriously, the Warsaw double-guitar five-piece’s second album, Black ‘n’ Roll (out in Europe last year on Mystic Productions, now seeing US release through Armoury Records), is rife with beer-raising über-rock that’s unrepentantly pop-oriented, but not in the American commercial sense. You’re not going to see Black River doing Burger King ads anytime soon, but it’s the kind of heavy rock that’s viable in Europe, and with a lineup featuring members of Behemoth and Dimmu Borgir, it comes with a built-in interest factor for fans of either band and an automatic leg-up as far as getting the name out is concerned.

While it’s easy to see a crowd of burly Eurodudes in leather jackets rocking out to songs like “Isabel” and the punkier “Black ‘n’ Roll,” equal parts Misfits and Bad Religion, I have a hard time imagining an American audience for Black River. In many ways, the songs are too commercial to really be underground, and too underground (and frankly, too hard rocking) to be commercial, straddling a line that’s been the undoing of many quality acts through the years. Still, the songwriting is solid, the music is unpretentious — the central riff of “Breaking the Wall” is enough to justify the rest of the record on its own – and just because a band doesn’t meet this or that role is no reason to count them out. Black ‘n’ Roll has a couple highlight moments that more than make up for any culture clash.

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It’s always (at very least) fascinating when players from the more extreme end of metal — death, black, etc. — decide to take on doom or stoner rock. Remember the first Sahg album? There’s a whole bunch of bands like that out there. Not all as good as Sahg, of course, but acts like Chrome Division, Helltrain — even Spiritual Beggars could fit into the category if you wanted them to badly enough.

Black River features members of Behemoth and Dimmu Borgir, among others, and I think what I like best about their video for the song “Lucky in Hell,” is that, although it features a good looking female protagonist, it’s not your typical rock and roll bullshit misogyny. I’ll be honest, if it was, I probably wouldn’t be posting it.

Here’s “Lucky in Hell,” followed by PR wire info about Black River‘s sophomore outing, Black ‘n’ Roll, which is due out in the States next month:

All-star band Black River, which features within its ranks members of Behemoth, Dimmu Borgir, Neolithic and Rootwater, are proud to unleash their first video for the song “Lucky in Hell” which comes off their upcoming new full-length Black ‘n’ Roll. The video features one of the most talented and popular Polish actresses — Magdalena Cielecka — who’s won several important awards over the years at cinema festivals in Edinburgh, Geneva, Tokyo and Gdynia, among others.

Black ‘n’ Roll is Black River‘s second full-length and offers 45 minutes of gritty, bar-ready riff rock anthems! The long player was recorded at Studio Sonus and Studio Gdansk, engineered by Malta (Behemoth) and debuted at #20 on the official Polish charts upon its European release earlier this year. Said guitarist Kay of the offering: “It has the taste of good whiskey, it smells with sweat of girls dancing at the strip bar and with odor of car tires burnt on tarmac.”

Black ‘n’ Roll will be released in North America by Armoury Records/Eagle Rock on July 20.

Black River is:
Taff – Vocals (Neolithic, Testor, Geisha Goner, Rootwater)
Orion – Bass (Behemoth, Neolithic, Vesania)
Daray – Drums (Dimmu Borgir, Neolithic, Vader, Masachist, Faust et al)
Art – Guitars
Kay – Guitars (Kayzen, Kashtany, Neolithic)