This review was originally posted to Sputnikmusic on 18 June 2014.
I'll be honest with you here, I have no idea how I found Silvia Siffredi. I think I saw their name and heard a song somewhere which got me to their debut EP Kurrie! but I'm not quite sure. The very.. let's say 18+ artwork by Juan Carlos Semino, while certainly eye-catching in its own right, is not the sort of thing that would draw me in on first impressions alone personally, but nonetheless I persevered and found that they are as crazy as you might think for a nu metal band putting something like this out. And it's thoroughly enjoyable.
The album seems to start normally enough in the opening seconds of "Mask" with bouncy nu metal guitar riffs, but once the vocals kick in, you know this isn't just gonna be another second rate nu metal band. These young Chileans throw curveballs all over the place with rapping, screaming, and completely unrestrained clean singing which dances all over the place. This may not be for everyone but for those who are familiar with the more eccentric portions of nu metal, such as System of a Down and Japan's Maximum the Hormone as well as the experimental metal antics of Mr Bungle, this should be a very fun aspect to the band. The riffs alone may be fairly basic but the odd little bits and pieces that they throw in alongside it make the music have that little extra aspect which makes it that little bit more unique. Songs like "Tao Pai Pai" just shoot all over the place and you're never quite sure what's going to come next, and even songs which seem like being their "normal" songs have their total deviations jumping in eventually. See "Mufasa's Death" for an example.
The actual production of Kurrie!, for a debut EP, is rather good, the majority of the instruments are given their chance to be heard (although the bass is still slightly strangled in the mix) and the vocals don't sound out of place in spite of their habit of rapidly switching styles at almost random points. The guitars each stand out and give the occasional other instrument the space to be noticed. The main complaints to be found about this album is that the delivery may be just a little too crazy for the average listener and that Silvia Siffredi may be an acquired taste for metal fans. But as so many predecessors have proved in the past, there is a place for this sort of weirdness to shine and there's every chance that this band can find a home in that scene. For a free EP, it's definitely worth a shot anyway if your tastes can deal with the 18+ artwork.