Suhgarim – “Between Life and Death” (2009)

Label : Ravenheart Records

Review by Tony Cannella

Hailing from Columbia, South Carolina, Suhgarim (pronounced sue-gair-im) play classic sounding Metal, with Hard Rock influences as well. Their new album – currently available via Ravenheart Music – is titled, “Between Life and Death” and it is a worthy to addition to the ever growing catalog from that great label. The band is fronted by Tricia Montfleury who adds a certain attitude and conviction to the songs. Among the 10-songs and 40-minutes worth of music present on “Between Life and Death”, there exists a lot strong guitar work and vocals that characterize the complete body of work on this CD. “Dirty Little Sinner” is the adrenalin-fueled opener and from there the band are only getting warmed up, as the following tracks “Loser”, “The Key” and “Hate” will attest to. The band simply rip on the tracks, “Straight Jacket Hands”, “Fall in Line” and “Tragic”. This is one of those albums, that you will find a new favorite track with each subsequent listen, for now, my favorite is the dramatic closer, “Portland”. Just a great song with fittingly powerful lyrics. The vocals of Tricia are powerful and go straight for the jugular, while the rest of the band members add their talents, in particular the guitar work by Dave Sudak and Charles Traweek is stellar as the riffs just keep on coming. Suhgarim add the best elements of classic bands such as AC/DC, Guns N’ Roses with the technical precision and musicianship of latter day Queensryche and Megadeth. The songs have a decidedly metallic edge to them that really put, “Between Life and Death” over-the-top for me.