Live Review: Kittie w/Holy Wars at The Dome, London!

A whistle stop European Festival run for Canadian home coming Queens Kittie is a thing of beauty and the fact that the band are able to sell out The Dome the day after an appearance at Download Festival bodes well for the longevity of their return. A new album in last summer’s “Fire” via Sumerian Records thirteen years after it’s predecessor in 2011’s “I’ve Failed You” was not only very well received but also piqued the interest of the Metal World, leading to countless opportunities which they’re currently making the most of. It’s a scorching summer’s day, fathers day and a Sunday so seeing as we’re not sweating our rocks off in a field, why not partake in sold out shenanigans? While we were around when the debut album from Kittie dropped and found them dubbed Nu-Metal with cuts like “Spit” and “Do You Think I’m A Whore“, it was actually their follow up records like “Oracle” when they twisted and contorted into a far heavier beast that really floated our boat. When we get to the venue, the queue is mighty long and when we eventually get inside, the queue for merch is the width of the place. If that doesn’t tell you how much love their is for Kittie, then let’s just say there is the air of no one wanting it to be the last time they redecorate these walls.

Tonight might be all about the headliner but for the purpose of tonight’s show Kittie have dragged Holy Wars [8/10] kicking and screaming to the stage. The Los Angeles Alternative Metal band, who also played Download Festival this weekend gave us single “I Feel Everything” last month as their first new material in two years. New song “Ceremony” appearance mid set as one of a prize pair of to be released cuts that bode very well for the future as the four piece bombard us with 30 minutes of varied tunes with synths and programming on a backing track. In some ways reminiscent of Sumo Cyco with a similar energy albeit with overall heavier tunes, vocalist Kat Leon cuts a sultry figure at times as the delivers the clean vocals with occasional unclean backing vocals from bassist Matt Cohen. “My Drugs are Digital“, “Get Mine” and the aforementioned “I Feel Everything” are standouts during the short, sharp and powerful set that finds the band flirting with Pop Punk and Alternative Metal, never afraid to pogo either side of a breakdown.

By the time that Kittie [10/10] take to the stage they’re welcomed like returning heroines. While they have the weight of nostalgia behind them, their new album “Fire” is so potent that this feels almost like a continuation of their career albeit with a break in the middle rather than anything else. The four piece hit us like a juggernaut broadsiding a car on the freeway, hammering out a twenty song career spanning set that showcases exactly what they’ve been about for the past twenty five plus years. Front woman Morgan Lander’s vocal range is absolutely incredible tonight, the soaring cleans impressing just as much as the harsh uncleans with the brutal “We Are Shadows” and “Mouthful Of Poison” a lesson in violence that the Mosh pit knows all to well. It’s not until five songs in after a raucous rendition of “Spit” that the band announce themselves and even then it’s a brief respite between songs played back to back with barely time to breathe between them. The bass rumbles and the drums pound as fan favourite “What I Always Wanted” gets the capacity crowd jumping for some mid set blood and thunder. Mercedes Lander’s harsh backing vocals being a wave of crowd surfers to the stage for security to deal with as the undeniable dirge laden down tuned riffage turns everyone into a sweaty mess. “Funeral For Yesterday“, “Vultures” and set closer “Do You Think I’m A Whore” all go down a storm before the inevitable return to the stage for a trio of cuts as an almighty encore. Before those, the audience sing happy birthday to bassist Ivana “Ivy” Jenkins who wields the five string axe like Adam Deuce in his prime, a swift shot of Jägermeister getting a rapturous applause. If you hadn’t guessed it, the encore starts with “Charlotte” which gets the crowd jumping before a rousing rendition of the song that put the band on the map in the first place “Brackish“. The four piece actually slow it down in the tail end, a pick slide and pause before a final chorus sending the crowd wild. One final song sees “We Are The Lamb” bring the curtain down on the night with the promise of a return and after this utter triumph it’s hard to argue that it’s a dream that won’t come true.