Kittie
Until the End
Artemis Records
Many of you who have heard Kittie’s previous releases know that they’re heavy, they rock and they’re cute. They’ve been rockin’ out since their early teens, and Until the End marks a sort of “attainment of potential.” The ladies have grown up a bit, and with that maturity has come a penchant for all things dark, evil and entirely frightening.
Until the End is the Kittie of 2001’s Oracle, after having been seduced by the dark side. No longer do they dance on the fence of nu-metal and rock. They are now a full fledged death metal band. Morgan Lander is one of the scariest sounding women in rock, with a growl/scream that could peel the paint off of your walls. The guitars are a lot beefier than on previous releases, and they seem to seethe and drip with bloody bits of freshly torn flesh, similar to South of Heaven-era Slayer. The drums have no effects on them whatsoever, making them sound rather raw, but it totally works here. Speaking of the drums, Morgan’s sister Mercedes just keeps getting better; she shifts time a lot on this album and throws in a lot of technical and impressive fills.
Standout songs include the beautifully sinister “Career Suicide,” a song with both singing and demonic screaming atop mid-paced death metal dirge. My favorite song is the devastating “Sugar,” a song that starts off sounding like Iowa-era Slipknot, only to slow to a heavy, mid paced stomper. These girls have gotten to be extremely tough, and they no longer put their cuteness out in the forefront (the only picture of them that accompanies this disc is hidden inside the lyric booklet). I’ve never heard anything heavier come from a group of ladies, ever, proving that death metal is not just for the boys. All hail Kittie!
Kittie: http://www.kittierocks.com
