Classic Rock Bottom

This week's pick came after many hours of debate. At first, this was going to be an album from a female rock icon, but that hinged on whether or not I received the album on Thursday (yesterday) instead of it's scheduled delivery date of Friday (today). 

When it didn't appear in yesterday's mail, the debate began. Even though the album that I was hoping to feature wasn't actually "metal", I decided that I should post an metal album, just to appease a couple people. 

The first album that came to mind was "Black Metal" from Venom an album that would have gone over very well, especially with two certain people. Then it dawned on me that I could actually continue the current ongoing theme, but with metal as the base.

Two more albums were picked, one from a band that has already been featured as a L/F album, and this one. Still, I wanted to post Venom and I sat there staring at those three album until I finally arrived at this week's pick, "In The Black" from Kittie, released in 2009. 

It should fit in quite nicely with that March Metal Madness thing as well as fit in quite nicely with that female theme. Venom would have fit in nice with only one of those, so I went for broke. Plus it's an album that a certain two people will absolutely love.

Now for the bio, courtesy of allmusic.com:

"Schoolgirls Mercedes Lander (drums) and Fallon Bowman (guitar) met in gym class and said, "Let's play together!" And thus, Kittie was born. At least, that's how legend has it, and it's not that far from the truth. Four teenage girls with a love of heavy metal, a desire to prove naysayers wrong, and a passion to rock formed the hard-sounding metal-esque quartet in 1997 while still in high school. One part glam rock and one part death metal, the women of Kittie signed with the NG Records-distributed Artemis Records after a stint of playing covers of Nirvana, Silverchair, and even Corey Hart. By the time indie record producer GGGarth had gotten hold of their demo, they had graduated from teen pop to pushing their sound up a notch along the likes of L7 and Godsmack. The debut full-length, Spit, showcasing their incisive sound, was released late in 1999 with Lander's sister Morgan picking up vocals/guitar and Talena Atfield (replacing Tanya Candler) on bass. The album was eventually certified gold and the Paperdoll EP followed a year later. In 2001, they released Oracle, their second full-length, followed by the Safe EP, which featured six live tracks, two versions of the title track, and an enhanced video of three cuts from a different live show. Various lineup shifts occurred, and the release further featured new bassist Jennifer Arroyo. 2004 saw the release of Until the End. More lineup shifts occurred (Arroyo left in early 2005 to join Suicide City), and by 2006, Kittie comprised the Lander sisters alongside guitarist Tara McLeod and bassist Trish Doan, formerly of the Ontario bands Sherry and Her, respectively. The group released Funeral for Yesterday the following year, with In the Black arriving in 2009."

And now.....the review, courtesy allmusic.com:

"Heavy metal may morph, contort, and willfully insert itself into every genre that uses amplification, but it always remains true to its fetish for maximum decibels. For the most part, Ontario-based metal outfit Kittie's fifth offering feels a lot like their first four. The band's tried-and-true formula of Metallica-sized riffing, death metal wailing, and choruses that sound like Heart's Nancy Wilson fronting Norwegian greasepaint rockers Dimmu Borgir, has proven to be more than effective, earning the continuously ferocious, all-female quartet a loyal following both at home and overseas. In the Black should do little to dilute that success, as it plays to the band's strengths while pushing the envelope just enough to cry progress. 2007's Funeral for Yesterday showed the group at their most commercial, cranking out hard-hitting slabs of Godsmack-style, midtempo brooders with hooks a plenty, whereas In the Black takes more chances, carving serpentine melodies through mountains of double-kick percussion and fat, dual-guitar/bass leads. Guttural, death metal vocals are the great equalizer in metal music, and Morgan Lander can shriek with the best of them (which she does throughout most of the record). Her clean vocals are more confident this time around, and when given a decent melodic cue (which are unfortunately few and far between), she could stop a freight train (or at least divert it into a mountain pass). In the Black may break little ground for the group, but it certainly fortifies what they've been standing on for the last decade."

Yes. They were sent a cease-and-desist letter from a certain money grubbing band.

In The Black

1. Kingdom Come
2. My Plague
3. Cut Throat
4. Die My Darling
5. Sorrow I Know
6. Forgive And Forget
7. Now Or Never
8. Falling Down
9. Sleepwalking
10. Whiskey Love Song
11. Ready Aim Riot
12. The Truth

 

Availability: Around $13 used.

Views: 125

Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

I wish you'd quit being so vague about who you're talking about in your narrative.

Vague?

If I had to guess who you're referring to I'd say Pell and Tage...

Nah, they don't listen to my efforts.

RJ and Niels?

Nah, only one of them supposedly takes the time to listen to the music that I take valuable time out of my busy schedule to post.

I have Oracle by Kittie.  Don't know why, I'm not a fan.  But looks like I have something to digest here.

You'll love this one.

I'm sure I will.  Can't wait.

For some reason, probably has something to do with stereotyping and gender bias, the thought of a woman sitting behind a a drum kit and kicking the double bass drum this fast seems to be an anomaly of sorts...  And then the cookie monster vocals kick in and my mind goes **BLEH**

Definitely fits the Metal theme.  I get to at least her true vocal chops on Die My Darling - which I'm guessing is a love song? - too bad they resort to CM.  Sorrow I Know at least has some melodicness to it, though it doesn't start out very well, it does at least break up the monotony of the CM.  Forgive and Forget - another love song? - I will give them credit for some great geetar work, its just too short of a solo and again CM kills it.

Falling Down is easily the best track, simply because of the lack of CM vocals, see how easy it would be for these gals to be so much better?  Just as I think were out of the CM stuff, along come Whiskey Love Song - lots of love songs on here! and reminds me they can rear their head at any time!

At 12 tracks were at the threshold of being too long yet not.  But its the CM vocals that make it tough to like this, OK impossible.  But remember, my favorite genre is Pop Metal/Rock ooey-gooey-melodicness...  Nice work in dusting off Lost albums and introducing us to new music, even if we don't agree, its time well spent ...

Nice work Jon!  Now you can get back to your Travolta-Newton John marathon...

I'm off today.  I'm trying a new way of listening, about to start, will be back shortly with the results.

So I tried something new.  I'm off today and I thought I'd lay back in my chair with my over-the-ear head phones and give this a spin.

And in the spirit of seemingly long lost Jon, I have to say this absolutely sucks.  There is very little redeeming value here.  I just don't understand anyone's love affair with this growling.  It just doesn't make sense.  Obviously, the vocalist has a decent voice.  She showed it at times.  I'm curious as to whether or not the same one that sings cleanly is the one that growls like a zombie? 

Anyway, my only positive remarks are for the first track, since it's instrumental.  Track five was not bad as it had no growling as far as I can remember.  And even though track six sucked, the guitar playing on it was pretty good.

I'm cool if Kittie never makes another appearance around here.

RSS

Question Of The Week

CRB Features (Click photo to visit)

Birthdays

There are no birthdays today

CRB Staff Members

 

In Memory Of

Norma Jean Fox
(11/30/1945-9/7/2010)

Photos

  • Add Photos
  • View All

Videos

  • Add Videos
  • View All

Badge

Loading…

© 2024   Created by RJhog (Admin).   Powered by

Badges  |  Report an Issue  |  Terms of Service