This year sees Kittie release their first album in 13 years. The reunited Canadian metal stars will drop Fire this summer, hot on the heels of an appearance at this year’s Sick New World festival. In the brand new issue of Metal Hammer, onsale now, singer/guitarist Morgan Lander and her sister, drummer Mercedes Lander, give us the lowdown on how their reunion came about and what the future holds for the band,
“I feel like we could have phoned it in and done what people expected us to do, but we've never been that band,” says Morgan of Fire. “We've always defied everything and done our own thing, and I think we're going to continue to do that. And that is the beauty of this band.”
The sisters also took the time to look back over their six albums so far, from 1999’s classic debut Spit to 2011’s I Failed You. This is what they had to say…
Spit (1999)
Kittie’s debut album was a dirty, deafening howl of teenage angst, with a genuine anthem of female empowerment in breakout single Brackish. “It’s probably considered a nu metal classic now,” says Morgan. “But Spit was just a bunch of young people really figuring it all out.”
Oracle (2001)
Tired of being pigeonholed as a nu metal band, Kittie leaned into their extreme metal influences on their second album. “Oracle was the complete antithesis of Spit,” explains Mercedes. “It was laser-focused. We wanted to put out the heaviest record we could.”
Until The End (2004)
The sound of a band switching gears and playing around with melody, with uneven results. “I would say there are a lot of great songs on that album, but sonically it’s not my favourite,” Mercedes agrees. “But we laid the foundations of who we have become as a band.”
Funeral For Yesterday (2007)
The brightest and most accessible album of their career. Funeral For Yesterday showed a different side to Kittie, although the band were unhappy with the “over-produced” final result. “The songwriting is some of our best,” says Mercedes. “But it definitely doesn’t sound the way I’d like it to sound.”
In The Black (2009)
After a couple of shaky records, Kittie hit a new groove on In The Black. My Plague and Cut Throat oozed confidence, tight melodies and thrashing, inventive guitars. The result was their best album. “We were coming back and taking no prisoners,” says Mercedes.
I’ve Failed You (2011)
Kittie nailed the balance between accessibility and brutality on I’ve Failed You, adding melody and harmonies to its steely-eyed thrash and death metal. “We took the idea of In The Black, and we built a better version of that record,” recalls Morgan.
The brand new issue of Metal Hammer, featuring an exclusive interview with Kittie, is on sale now. Order it online and have it delivered straight to your door.
