Kittie: Spit : Music Reviews : Rolling Stone

Album Reviews

The four gothed-out ontario teenagers of Kittie are spitting mad -- as the title of their debut album indicates -- but, being high schoolers as well as Canadians, they're mad at nothing in particular. This makes the earnest Spit fairly good-natured for an exercise in repetitive maximum aggro. Kittie take their cues from goateed oldies like Iron Maiden and Black Sabbath -- Spit is all classic headbanging riffs, drum thrash, stop-start construction and the tense, guttural vocals of guitarist-singer Morgan Lander. The band plays it fast and vicious when its roots are showing (as on the electric "Brackish," sure to become an anthem for a new generation of old-school metalheads) and alternate between pouty and fierce on dense, teasingly melodic behemoths like "Charlotte." Their best numbers showcase Mercedes Lander's tricky drum work and resurrect the satanic churn of Seventies hard rock -- "Choke" snarls and chugs, dragging dirt and iron filings in its wake. And, oh yeah, they're chicks. (RS 837)

ARION BERGER