Though they describe themselves as happy, jovial people, the heavy metal trio Kittie plays their music hard enough, loud enough and mean enough to be compared to a bunch of men playing with power saws.
The heavy metal trio roars into Buffalo tonight to play at the Showplace Theater. Kittie hails from London, Ontario and is comprised of three teenage girls: Morgan Lander on vocals and lead guitar; her sister Mercedes Lander on drums; and the newest member, Talena Atfield, on bass guitar.
These girls are not the average teenagers - their music can be compared to the heaviness of such bands as Mudvayne and Slipknot. With their incredible talent and ability they have definitely impressed heavy metal veterans such as Ozzy Osbourne and Pantera, both of whom hand-picked the girls to tour with them on Ozzfest and The Reinventing the Steel tour.
The band's sophomore album "Oracle" was released in December 2001 and has since sold over 500,000 copies in the United States and Canada. Their 1999 debut album Spit is an in-your-face, hard-edged, heavy metal album, but the second CD is even heavier.
The natural evolution of the songs on "Oracle" goes from horrifying to mesmerizing, especially on tracks such as "In Winter," which truly shows off Morgan's vocal talent. She is able to sing in a high soprano voice like an angel soaring above the heavy, slow crawl of the music, and then suddenly she switches her voice to a low, guttural, growl typical of death metal music.
The album features several captivating songs, such as "Severed," where Mercedes pile drives the music into the underworld, starting off with a pulsing rhythm on the drums that will vibrate the listener to the very core. At the same time, Atfield compliments the groove on bass, ripping out rhythms deep enough to fall into.
The first single released off the album is called "What I Always Wanted," a mix of melodic harmonies and molten metal tendencies.
"The whole theme of the song is a kind of soured victory," said Morgan. "It happens when you wish for something and you sort of get it, but it's also not what you intended and there's a twisted irony. You get your wish but it's just not what you bargained for."
The album also contains a cover of Pink Floyd's "Run Like Hell" so hard-hitting and captivating it is difficult to be sure it's the same song.
As the album grinds to a close, the true musical gems lie in the later tracks. In songs like "Safe," one can see how far Kittie has come since their debut release. The song mixes an enchanting layer of vocals; Morgan sings like a choirboy over a guitar and piano ballad, soothing the listener's inner feline and provides the calm before the storm.
The storm that follows and concludes the album, "Pink Lemonade," is a 10-minute whirlwind of intense vocals, throbbing bass riffs and a flurry of drums that will make the listener feel as if in the eye of a tornado.
"An oracle speaks of truth, and sort of foresees the future," said Lander. "This album is a "coming-into-our-own" album; we've formed our own sound and it's our truth."
