Welcome to the Internet home of SUHGARIM
Suhgarim started out as an acoustic duo near Venice, Italy, and is the brainchild and passion of Vocalist/Songwriter Tricia Montfleury and Guitarist/Songwriter Dave Sudak. They have released one EP called When You Bleed in April of 2007, which was recorded at Studio C in Chapin, SC. Special thanks to Race Manning and Matt Veltmann for a great job tracking and mixing. After going through some personel changes they added one of the tightest and most energetic rhythm sections in the Southeast consisting of Patt Trikk on Drums and Hank Thomas on Bass. As of October 2007 they have also added Charles Traweek on Guitars & Keyboard which is a much anticipated addition to the bands sound. They have also added J Leidy on bass, formerly of Evil Empire since Hank had to leave at the end of 2007 due to personal commitments. Patt, Charles and J bring a wealth of musical knowledge and solid skills to the band. They are currently touring the Southeast and have played with Blessed by a Broken Heart, Hydrovibe, Wednesday 13, Ligion, Fixer, Hot Lava Monster, Black Ritual, Closer, Soul Mites, Evil Empire, Zelazowa, Restless Oblivion, Psycle, Lunas Lament and many other bands. Suhgarim's sound has been called, "as original as their name, the love child of Queensryche, Megadeath and Heart, alt - ethereal modern metal and combining the sounds and style of Dio and Iron Maiden". However, no matter what your opinion of their sound, I'm sure you'll agree, "It's bad ass rock and roll!"
So What Does It Mean?
Apparently no one really knows what our name means, or so it seems. Perhaps an explanation is in order. Ambiguity may not be the best policy as far as band names go, I suppose.
People have been asking, so here goes. Originally, we wanted to call the band Sugarhim, but our drummer at the time thought that had some sexual conotations, tossed salad and all that! How that entered his mind we'll never know, but we decided to change the spelling to Suhgarim to avoid confusion.
Of course, In it's pure form Suhgarim means absolutely nothing except the name of a rock band from Columbia, SC. However, it is a play on words. Or word actually.
The original name is taken from the ENUMA ELISH which is a Babylonian creation myth which is most likely Sumerian in origin. Sumer was one of the early civilizations of the Ancient Near East, located in the southern part of Mesopotamia (southeastern Iraq)
from the time of the earliest records in the mid 4th millennium BC until the rise of Babylonia in the late 3rd millennium BC, we're talking way back. Thousand of years ago to be exact. Sumer together with Ancient Egypt and the Indus Valley Civilization is considered the first
settled society in the world to have manifested all the features needed to qualify fully as a "civilization". The name Suhgarim is taken from one of the fifty names of power for their god who was actually the creator of all gods.
In that context Suhgarim which was the 21st name of power, SUHGURIM, means he who ensures a hearing, Creator of the gods, his fathers. May his name be evoked and spoken in the land! So why the word play. Well for one, there are other bands that have taken that name as their own.
Which leads to reason number two. Branding. In my opinion the best name for a band is one that can be easily branded and recognized. When someone searches for that name the first and even better the only sites returned are linked to that name, not a bunch of unrelated sites, therefore reinforcing name recognition.
And so the mystery is ended. Perhaps in spoiling the suspense we have created in you a curiosity to look into ancient history. Or perhaps not!
Disclaimer: All of this is not to
say that anyone in Suhgarim believes in anything whether it be an ancient or
modern god. Not to say we don't believe in something either, individually that
is. It's just to say that Dave finds these things interesting and thought it a
good place to get a name. Of course in Dave's own words, "I only believe in
Science". And so the mystery continues...
