Review: “Spit XXV” by Kittie

“It’s hard to believe that 25 years after its release, and almost 30 years since Kittie began, people are still talking about Spit. There is something truly unexplainable in why our debut album is still resonating with people, finding a new audience and has had such a lasting impact on so many. Reimagining some of these classic songs for the 25th anniversary of Spit was a lot of fun and a true testament to their longevity. It reveals just how relevant in the musical landscape they still are today. We were honoured to work with Garth again where it all began after more than two decades, and doing so was a cool way to pay homage to the past while updating these songs with a modern sound, bringing them into the future.” ~ Morgan Lander

After what can only be described as a triumphant return from hiatus in 2022 with performances at Festivals including Sick New World, Welcome to Rockville and Sonic Temple before the arrival of their critically acclaimed 2024 come back album “Fire“, its safe to say that the Metal world are once again very much in love with Canadian Meta act Kittie. Celebrating the 25th Anniversary of their gold-certified debut album “Spit“, the current line up of the band in vocalist and guitarist  Morgan Lander, drummer and backing vocalist Mercedes Lander, guitarist Tara McLeod and bassist Ivy Vujic entered the studio. They had with them original producer Garth “GGGarth” Richardson (It Dies Today, Still Remains, Testament) and re-recorded four of the albums biggest anthems to freshen them up. The question is, could they achieve what the Cavalera brothers have done with their early Sepultura albums or what Lacuna Coil did with “Comalies XX“?

As all four of the chosen songs are staples of the bands live set the answer to that should be a resounding yes, however others have fallen into a Venus flytrap, re-recording half baked almost demo quality renditions that don’t stand up the quality of the originals despite modern production values. This collection however has the benefit of the original producer and as title track “Spit XXV” begins it’s clear that no such mistake has been made with these. Morgan Lander’s vocals have improved over the years, her bark now as vicious as her bite and that shines through with her performance on the title track. The band as a whole have done what fans hoped and naysayers feared, capturing the energy of their live performances like lightening in a bottle and committing them to tape with an instrumentally tight performance that has been tweaked over decades of live performances. The dark energy of the original cuts runs through the veins of each one of these refreshed tunes, the violent thoughts in the lyrics of “Do You Think I’m A Whore? XXV” enough to crack a smile on the face of the hardest of Metal heads. Morgan Lander’s grunge inspired clean vocal moments on this one are achingly beautiful and the guitars benefit from the satisfying crunch of a solid tone choice, not to mention modern production values.

The almost industrial drum patterns of “Brackish XXV” always put Kittie into “Wisconsin Death Trip” era Static-X with that evil disco quality and here that’s chemically enhanced with the slick bass groove from Vujic as Mercedes Lander beats the living daylights out of the kit. A pummelling rendition that makes great use of vocal layering, this is very much still the call to incite mosh pit violence that the original is. “Charlotte XXV” also benefits from Morgan Lander’s fresher vocals, the sense of drama she captures with this rendition enhancing what the original with the clean parts soaring like an Eagle over the Grand Canyon. An additional 20 seconds of music is a nice touch to, that brutal snap back for a harsh final verse still hitting like a sucker punch after 25 years. The only real question here is why they only did the four tracks and not the full album, which is probably down to a lack of time to re-learn the remaining songs, some of which they haven’t played in a considerable amount of time, if ever. So these four will suffice, keeping the bloodthirsty wolves from the bands door while they write their next record [8.5/10]

Track Listing

1. Spit XXV
2. Do You Think I’m A Whore? XXV
3. Brackish XXV
4. Charlotte XXV

“Spit XXV” by Kittie is out 19th September 2025 via Sumerian Records