Kittie -- 'Until the End' [review]

Kittie
"Until the End"
Artemis Records


Somewhere along the way they got lost...

In the fall of '99, a rumbling came from the great white north -- an all-female (teen) metal band from Ontario under the moniker of Kittie. The band was getting constant mention with the likes of Slipknot on commercial radio and, by the time their debut album "Spit" hit shelves in January of 2000, there was a steady enough buzz surrounding the band to warrant stardom.

But the teen trio seemed unable to live up to the task.

After steady touring in support of "Spit" the band lost guitarist and secondary vocalist Fallon Bowman (leaving frontwoman Morgan Lander to handle all guitar and vocal work). The band soldiered on a three-piece for its second offering, "Oracle." But for everything "Spit" was -- metal meets heavy punk with a one-two punch of screeching vocals and melodic singing -- "Oracle" was not.

Gone was the musical hybrid the band had embraced and crafted nicely with its debut ... replaced almost entirely with death metal and chunky riffs.

Gone was the vocal range of the band's lyrical delivery ... not only was Bowman no longer on hand to deliver vocal "comebacks," but Lander had all but abandoned her melodic singing, preferring instead to gutturally growl throughout the disc except for spots here and there. (To be fair, this was not a new development as the band performed using the death-metal vocals prior to the release of "Oracle" and could almost be seen as a natural progression.)

In the end, this second offering did nothing to expand the band's fan base. In fact, if anything, it pushed the members further into a corner. Bassist Talena Atfield quietly bowed out of the group and the Lander sisters (the band featured Morgan's sister Mercedes on drums) were left alone in their musical playpen. The duo recruited bassist Jennifer Arroyo (formerly of LA underground metal-rap outfit Spine) and soldiered on.

A lengthy lawsuit with label Artemis Records took up most of the band's time in the later half of 2003. The suit was eventually settled and the band spent a month holed-up at Longview Farm Studios in Massachusetts hammering out the tracks that were to finally become "Until the End." The band also welcomed guitarist Lisa Marie into its fold and is once again a quartet.

So after a nearly three year wait, is "Until the End" everything fans could hope for and more? In short, no.

After all the history, Kittie really does seem to just be a toy for the Lander sisters to play with. (All songs were written by Morgan Lander, melody, lyrics and guitar riffs, while Mercedes had a hand in "additional arrangement" on six songs and Arroyo on two. Marie was added towards the end of recording and it isn't clear how much part, if any, she had one this album.)

"Spit" seemed raw and the band seemed to show some sort of promise. But instead of developing into a formidable band with direction, the trio floundered around in the death metal pool for its follow-up and, on its third full-length (there was an EP to follow each album), the band continues to feel directionless and unformed pulling in elements from each of the previous albums.

The addition of "scene" veteran Arroyo helps in some respect. She is able to form the songs and add a nice back-beat to keep things somewhat on track. The band's "sound" does seem more fleshed out, production-wise, from the opening of the first song "Look So Pretty." But Morgan's vocals just seem to lack that certain something evident in fellow female growlers like Angela Gossow of Arch Enemy. Maybe it's the switching between the death metal growl and the melodic singing (which she does pull off with haunting success). Or maybe she just lacks something in the death metal delivery.

Speaking of the vocal switching, it's back in full-effect on "Until the End," and is actually quite welcome as "Oracle" just felt overbearing with the lack of melody. On the album's title track, Morgan remains rooted almost entirely in the melodic vocal delivery, and it pays off as this is probably the disc's best song.

On the guitar front, all the riffing sounds more full than anything the band offered up prior (again, probably due in part to the production). The riffing on tracks like "Red Flag" and "Career Suicide" sounds great.

As for the real star of the band, Mercedes has continued to develop as a drummer and it really shows. The back-beats throughout the album are meaty and energized. In interviews, staff working on the production side of things at Longview pointed out Mercedes could pound out track after track in perfect time without any aid. The drumming on each and every song is something to behold and definitely the star of "Until the End."

Northstar -- 'Pollyanna' [review]

Northstar
"Pollyanna"
Triple Crown Records

"And operator, I can't hold much longer ..."
-- From "To My Better Angel"


For Northstar, it\'s been a long journey from the local music scene in and around Alabama from its 1997 inception to its place on the national music scene and current release, "Pollyanna."

The band gained attention when Taking Back Sunday declared the group the "greatest band in the world" in the liner notes of the band's debut "Tell All Your Friends" in 2002. The praise was used in the marketing of Northstar's debut "Is This Thing Loaded" later that same year.

Whether or not you agree with the praise, Northstar are out to prove it just may be true with its latest release.

Kicking off with "For Members Only," a fast-tempo rocker similar to the opener of "Is This Thing...," Northstar immediately grab hold of the listener with its trademark sound. The production is noticeably better this time around. While the band, in general, focus on a generic sound (strong rock music, catchy lyrics and choruses for the most part), it does it extremely well. Lead singer Nick Torres has a particularly distinctive voice and delivery, almost dreamy and slightly slurred with an element of snotty punk vocals but also probably due to his southern dialect.

Whereas "Is This Thing..." started off strong and sort of petered out mid-way through the album (where it almost all started to sound the same or, at least, less inspired), "Pollyanna" starts off with a bang and just gets better and better.

The title track follows up the opener with a strong guitar opening from Tyler Odom. Odom lays a nice hypnotic riff under the verses of the song before the song explodes into the chorus. Musically, during the chorus, the band's tight trades are fully evident, showing it pays to tour relentlessly to polish your craft.

"American Living" is also great musically, while "Pornographers Daughter" shows off the band's haunting backing vocals, specifically the hollow "This is not for me..." The later also features some really interesting guitar play especially after the first chorus.

But while the album rocks out track after track, the band also throws in a couple of slower songs. "Accident Underwater" starts off slow and hypnotizingly melodic with some nice drumming from Gabe Renfroe before flourishing into a full-bore rock track at its conclusion. On the flip side, "Two Zero Zero" starts off slow and stays that way, a haunting acoustic number showing the band can strip down at times without loosing the spark most of the other songs have.

Following the slower two-song intermission, the band offers up a hard-hitting one-two punch, and the strongest tracks on the album, "To My Better Angel" and "Between Horns and Halos."

"To My Better Angel" is completely jarring following the lullaby-like "Two Zero Zero." Renfroe sounds frenzied behind the drums while bassist Jake Fisher lays a nice, subtle underbeat. The lyrics are some of the album's more interesting, talking about trying to get out of a small town, and follow through throughout the song: Torres starts off with a refrain of "So if anybody talks of me, tell them I am never coming home again. Tell them I am gone..." while begging the operator to hurry since he can't wait much longer, but by the end of the track the music becomes more frenzied and the lead singer snarls, "So if anybody talks of me, tell them I'll be gone forever without these scars that are completely invisible."

The smart lyrics continue on "Between Horns and Halos," the perfect song to really see how smart the band's writing can be. The opening lines "Looking out of a second floor window, planning out my exit wound" directly juxtapose the same theme later in the verse, "Trying on a makeshift halo, kissing on my exit wound." The idea of alienation with a lover isn't just presented, but almost drawn like an artist:

"She felt so cold, so cold,
She froze under the sheets while I slept all day...
She will sleep here
In between the cracks
Just a flower with a broken back
'Waiting for dirty water'
Did you sleep alright?
She's giving beat stares from being beat all day
Indian eyes in the American way
'Hail Mary's' and ale ... A Hailed Mary that ails..."


(The juxtapose of Hail Mary's and eventual hailed Mary is especially thought-provoking.)

Not content to let the album slide to a halt, the band offers up two more rocking tracks, "Digital Me," the disc most hard-hitting track, and "Rocket City."

Closing out with "Rocket City," the band continues the album's overall theme of alienation, and feeling trapped living in small-town America: opening with the track "For Members Only"; lines in "American Living" like "things don't get much better than this ... life doesn't get much bigger than this," and "Just teach me something so I can go"; the theme throughout "To My Better Angel"; and closing with the echoing lines of "Rocket City," "If I stay here I'll be dying forever.\"

Ultimately, "Pollyanna" offers up what, at first, is just a solid rock album with great vocals and lyrics. With each listen the songs become more poignant and thoughtful, and eventually the album's full theme comes into focus. There isn't a weak song on here and the album is well-worth checking out.