Please critique my hoppy dark session ale recipe

I'm going for a hoppy black session beer with rye, about 4-4.5%abv. Pronounced hoppy character with hint of chocolate and rye. I've never attempted a beer like this so I'm most concerned about my speciality grains being over the top for such a small beer. Any constructive advice is much appreciated.

4# Extra Light DME
1# 2row
8oz Crystal 20L
1# Chocolate Rye
1# Carafa III
8oz Rye flakes

1oz Chinook FWH
1oz Cascade 30
1oz Cascade 10
1oz Cascade 5
1oz Chinook 5
2oz Cascade KO

2oz Cascade dry hop

was leaning towards California Ale yeast on this one.

Estimated gravity?
Estimated IBU's?

Carafa III is best kept between 1-5% of your grist. A full pound may over power the beer.

If I had to pick and brew today, I'd go with .75# of the chocolate Rye and .25# of the carafa III.

Dial your IBU's to be equivelant to your OG (A 1.045 Beer has IBU's of around 45)

The roasted grains will lend some char and bitterness so no need for a huge up front hop addition.

If you are looking for a session beer I think your IBUs are going to be overpowering and throw the balance of the beer out of whack. I would stick with a 1:1 OG to IBU ratio at most. Also 9 ounces of hops in a 4.5% beer could for many folks be the opposite of a session beer because your palette could get worn out. I would suggest moving your IBUs into the 40ish range and using about 2/3 of the hops you initially thought of. Also the amount of specialty grains you are using are a fairly high percentage of your total grist. From my experience, you should have no more than 15-20% specialty grains in this type of beer, so that would put you in the 1.75 pound range for your crystal, chocolate rye, carafa, and flaked rye. Just my 2 cents!

Thanks for the input. I was thinking I was over doing it. I meant session purely in the lower abv sense. I can drink a lot of hoppy bitter beer. However, I should consider the bitterness from grains and tone the hops down a bit.

Any suggestions for adding more color without much flavor in this recipe?