For the all female Alternative Metal band from Canada it begins here and this is the place that the world at large got their first listen to some Kittie. Their name gave the impression that they were something soft and demure but when you first start playing the debut Spit, you best be prepared for the venomous outrage that the girls were delivering in its tracks. All female groups were not something new to Hard Rock by this time and in 1999 had been preceded by the likes of Vixen and Girlschool but while the first band was very Glam oriented and the latter more traditionally based, the girls in Kittie delivered the angst and pain that women of the day were experiencing. To be honest I didn't like the band at my first go with them back in the day and Nu-Metal was something I would have preferred to had gone away instead of continuing to prosper but in looking back at the release some ten years after its birth have found levels of appreciation in the way that sisters Morgan and Mercedes Lander had chosen to dole out their Metal. At first listen it's hard to realize how the songs are proclaiming a strong feministic independence but you do easily notice how the girls are not ones who seem willing to take shit from anyone. Songs like "Brackish", "Paperdoll" and "Charlotte" are the clear winners here and still often performed in concert today when they do their tours. These are among my own favorites even though "Get Off" and "Do You Think I'm A Whore" are good too. There are some tastes of the whole Rap influence in some of the lyrical flow on a couple of the tunes but that was how Nu-Metal was forming around this time. The band didn't maintain this process which I am happy to report and instead focused on keeping the riffs and drum parts heavy. Musically the girls do pretty good and at the time of this albums release singer Morgan was only seventeen. She sings in both a clean and growling voice across the whole of the albums tracks and shows that her melodic side is pretty nice while her growls will make one realize she means business.
The remastered edition finds a new life breathed into the album which comes in a digipak case and while the booklet could have been expanded a little more we do find about a handful of photos of the girls. In 1999 the lineup was the founding Lander sisters who handled vocals, guitar, and drums along with Fallon Bowman (guitar/vocals) and Talena Atfield (bass/vocals). The liner notes explain how Tanya Candler played bass on the recording. She had split from the band to continue her studies and Atfield was her replacement. Historically this is an important album for Metal whether you love or hate the band because it showed how the girl groups were not all powder puffs and makeup and instead could and would kick your ass if need be. The fine folks of Metal Mind Productions have remastered the entire Kittie back catalog and these are worth hunting down if you are a hard core fan of the group who are still active in today's music scene. The lineup has changed a number of times and finds only the Lander sisters as the remaining original members but having seen them a number of times over the recent years can say that the band gives the fans their all.
Track Listing:
- Spit
- Charlotte
- Suck
- Do You Think I'm A Whore
- Brackish
- Jonny
- Trippin'
- Raven
- Ger Off (You Can Eat A Dick)
- Choke
- Paperdoll
- Immortal
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