Metal has long been a male- dominated space, but was arguably never as testosterone-driven as during the late 90s/early 00s nu metal goldrush. When Kittie released their debut album, Spit, in January 2000, it cut through the baggy pants bravado like a knife. Not only did it go harder and more aggressive than any nu metal album doing the rounds, with shades of death metal cutting through mountainous Korn-esque grooves, it also had thought-provoking and defiant songs like Choke and Suck, and sought to subvert gender expectations. And with Brackish, the band hit upon nu metal’s only genuine anthem of empowerment.
Yet, when the four then-teenagers headed into EMAC Studios in Ontario to record Spit in the summer of 1999, they had no expectations. After playing a showcase at Canadian Music Week a few months earlier, Kittie had been signed by NG Records, a small, independent punk label kicking up dust out of NYC, on a four-album deal. But even then, the band cheerfully admit the magnitude of the situation was lost on them. “I remember signing the deal, but it wasn’t like the golden magical pen like, ‘Hey, you guys got your big record deal’,” says vocalist Morgan Lander. “It felt very low key. We were so young, we were just here for the ride. We thought this would be a fun summer project. We were going to press 5,000 copies of Spit and that was going to be it.”
