# Spit (album)

Spit is the debut studio album by Canadian heavy metal band Kittie, originally released on November 13, 1999, through Ng Records. Kittie were formed in 1996, and signed a four-album deal with Ng following their performances at the Canadian Music Week festival in March 1999. Recorded over nine days in May 1999 with producer Garth Richardson at EMAC Studios in London, Ontario, Spit is a nu metal album that incorporates various elements from several heavy metal subgenres. Inspired by life experiences, its lyrical themes include sexism, hatred, ignorance, self-image, and betrayal. The album is Kittie's only release with their original line-up, featuring bassist Tanya Candler and guitarist Fallon Bowman. Following Candler's departure in September 1999, the band recruited bassist Talena Atfield.
Shortly after Spit's initial release, Ng was absorbed into Artemis Records, whom reissued the album with a new cover on January 11, 2000. Kittie promoted the album with the release of two singles, "Brackish" and "Charlotte", and extensive touring which saw them perform at the Ozzfest and SnoCore festival tours in 2000 and 2001, respectively. The album reached number 79 on the US Billboard 200 chart and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in October 2000, but did not perform as well in Canada due to a lack of radio support and touring. As of April 2003, it has sold sold 660,000 copies in the United States, and 40,000 in Canada. Retrospectively, Spit is regarded as one of the greatest nu metal albums of all time, and an inspiration to women in metal.

## Background

Kittie were formed in September 1996 in London, Ontario, by drummer Mercedes Lander and guitarist Fallon Bowman, whom met in gymnatics class. They bonded over their shared interest in grunge artists such as Nirvana and Silverchair, and after learning they both played instruments, began jamming together. Bowman and Mercedes initially jammed with a guitarist called Sandra. Four or five months after the band's formation, Mercedes' sister, Morgan Lander, joined as their guitarist and vocalist after Sandra moved to Europe. Morgan said she was "elected" as their singer. The trio started out playing covers of Nirvana, Silverchair, Deftones and Korn before attempting to write their own material; "Brackish" was the first song they wrote together. Most of the songs that would appear on Spit were written by Morgan, Mercedes and Bowman in 1997, and reworked until the album was recorded. The band wrote the music first, as a "backdrop" to Morgan's vocals. After a week of jamming with a bassist called Mel, the band recruited Tanya Candler, whom they had met at a Tea Party concert at the Aeolian Hall, as their first permanent bassist in November 1997. Candler began playing bass just to audition for the band. They decided to name themselves Kittie in order to sign up for a Battle of the Bands competition. In an 1999 interview with Metal Maidens, Morgan explained that the name was intended to present a contradiction between its seemingly "cute, fragile and feminine" nature and what the band's music "really is about: women playing metal".
On February 28, 1998, Kittie made their live debut performing at a Battle of the Bands competition at Call the Office in London, Ontario, which they did not win. The band's second performance took place at their high school as part of a talent show, but were told to stop playing after one song by a teacher whom, according to Mercedes, "didn't like our music and said that women shouldn't be playing [it]". Thereafter, Kittie began playing shows in London every one or two weeks at either Call the Office or The Embassy. Dave Lander, Morgan and Mercedes' father, became Kittie's manager after seeing how serious both of them were about the band. In 1998, Kittie recorded their first demo, SexIzHell, for $200 or $300. In 1999—around four months after their first demo, and with some financial help from Dave—the band recorded an epynomous six-song extended play/demo CD at EMAC Recording Studios. EMAC owner Robert Nation, whom had engineered both of Kittie's demos, gave the band's demos to producer Garth Richardson, whom he knew from school. Richardson was impressed by the demos and agreed to record their debut album for a minimum fee. In March 1999, the band performed at Canadian Music Week festival in Toronto, where they received twelve record label offers. Morgan said that Kittie had most of their songs ready by this point and were planning on recording an album with Richardson after Canadian Music Week even if they did not have a record deal. At the festival, Kittie approached Jason Wyner, second-in-command at Ng Records. Ng had previous rejected the band's demos, but after seeing them perform live, Wyner signed Kittie into a four-album record deal with the label.

## Recording and production

Kittie recorded Spit with Garth Richardson at EMAC Studios in May 1999, in the span of nine days. According to Morgan, Richardson took time out from his other projects to work on the album. As the members of Kittie were still attending high school at the time, recording sessions would take place in the evenings after they had dinner and finished their homework at the studio. Candler said the band finished at no later than 10pm per day, whilst Morgan said recording sessions would continue until 1am or 2am—"But it was so worth it". The album's recording costs totalled US$57,000; Morgan said that Kittie paid for recording themselves as they did not want to be told what to do by Ng Records. The band were not officially signed to the label until June or July 1999.
Prior to recording, Kittie told Richardson that they wanted Spit to sound "live and raw, yet still [possess] the quality of a professional, studio-produced recording", and the band spent an entire day choosing which equipment and amps they wanted to use from Richardson's array. Morgan and Bowman used two guitars on the album; a "really great, really chunky sounding" homemade guitar by Richardson, and Morgan's custom Gibson Flying V with all three of its Seymour Duncan Metal Live Wire humbuckers turned on for a "huge, meaty sound". In place of effects pedals, guitar distortion was produced using an combination of Orange, Marshall and Soldano Hot Rod 100 Plus amplifiers. Bowman only used one guitar pedal on the entire album, an Ibanez Classic Phase. Due to short recording window, Mercedes' drum takes were essentially "one-offs" and Morgan's vocals were not double-tracked. Morgan also played bass on "Raven", "Immortal", and one other song on Spit.
Richardson said that his input on Spit was limited to helping Kittie choose sounds and suggestions on guitar and drum parts. Morgan said that the album's songs remained largely unchanged from when they were first written, with the exception of "Paperdoll", whose structure was changed after Richardson pointed out a "catchy hook" in the song. She also said he helped the band with some vocal arrangements and melodies. "Brackish" was nearly left off of Spit due to problems surrounding its arrangements, but would come into its own when Kittie recruited DJ Dave, a friend of Nation's, to add "some cool jungle" beats under the track. Morgan wrote the song's chorus in the studio's vocal booth a week later, and the band recorded it the next day. The album was completed in August 1999.

## Music and lyrics
### Overview

Spit has primarily been described as a nu metal, alongside heavy metal, thrash metal, death metal, grindcore, hard rock, hardcore punk, alternative rock, techno and rap metal. Morgan described the band's style as "glam-goth, metal-glitter". According to Arion Berger of Rolling Stone, the album features "classic headbanging riffs", thrash drums, and "stop-start" song structures. Lalena Fissure of The Village Voice described it as a "rampage of D-tuned axes, dynamic single-kick drumming, and vocal variety". Morgan alternates between guttural, growled, screamed, sung, and spoken vocals. The album's songs are played in drop C.
In an interview with Kerrang!, Morgan Lander described Spit as "a dark album, but it's about every day life which isn't always peachy". Inspired by life experiences, the album's lyrics explore sexism, hatred, ignorance, self-image and self-esteem, and betrayal. They also display feelings of anger, fear, self-loathing, teen angst, and world-weariness. Morgan hoped the album's lyrics would be relatable to people, whilst Mercedes said that Kittie's music was intented to reflect both the good and bad aspects of everyday life. George Lang of The Oklahoman characterized the album's lyrics as "full of spit and venom", whilst Oliver of Metal.de said that they "reveal deep abysses in the souls of the authors". Roxanne Blanford of AllMusic described the lyrics "angry, brash, pro-feminist declarations", whilst Stuart Muirhead of Select said they show a "gloriously unfocussed rage" towards male domination in heavy metal music.
The members of Kittie denied claims that Spit's songs were about sex on the basis of their song titles, which they attributed to people making assumptions because they were women. For example, Morgan compared "Choke" to the Sepultura song of the same name and observed how "no-one attached a sexual meaning to [it]". The band also distanced themselves from feminism in contemporary interviews, with Morgan stating in an interview with MTV News that Kittie expressed the "theme" of equality more than they talked about it in their songs. Morgan told Metal Hammer in 2021 that in hindsight, she recognised that Kittie's beliefs in equality aligned with feminism, but that the band did not understand it fully at the time and were afraid of its negative connotations from others who did not understand it.

### Songs

According to Valerie Potter of Q, Spit "kicks off sounding like a female Napalm Death, vocalist Morgan Lander screaming over the cataclysmic noise that is the title track". The song's lyrics, which author Tommy Udo described as an "angry feminist riptose", were inspired by the attitude of local bands towards Kittie, with Mercedes stating in the album's press bio: "People expect us to suck, then we get on stage and blow them away." "Charlotte" was inspired by a serial killer from the book Rites of Burial by Tom Jackman and Troy Cole. Structurally, the song goes from "speed metal to anthem to hardcore yelp to ballad, then back again", per Fissure. "Do You Think I'm a Whore?" is about self-image and judgement by others for the way women—Kittie included—want to dress and present themselves. Morgan said it was about people "[assuming] you're a slut because you wear a short skirt", with its title being given "basically to prove people wrong". According to Telegram & Gazette's Craig Semon, the song starts with Morgan "[believing] the lies that she's something wicked", and shows her working up the strength to fight back from a point of faltered self-esteem. "Brackish" incorporates "frenetic electronic beats" and displays influences of techno and rap. According to Morgan, the song is written about a toxic relationship between a friend of the band and an older man. Metal Hammer's Dannii Leivers called it an "anthem of empowerment", whilst Brenda Bouw of the National Post viewed it as a warning against co-dependency and a call for "women to be strong and emotionally independent".
According to the Sun-Sentinel, "Raven" was inspired by a death threat Kittie received from a male band they competed against in a talent show in Ontario. "Get Off (You Can Eat a Dick)" was written about the band's high school talent show, which marked their first experience with discrimination, according to Mercedes. Michael Tedder of The Pitch described the song as a "vital, vitriol-filled" jab "at men who think women can't play rock". "Choke" is an "emotional response to betrayal" that musically recalls "the satanic churn of [1970s] hard rock", per Berger. On "Paperdoll", the album's penultimate track, Morgan sings about the degradation of women as objects over a "twangy" guitar rhythm and hammering drum beat. Kittie said the song was intended to destroy the image of women as "blow-up dolls". The album ends with the "Goth-tinged" instrumental track "Immortal". The song was supposed to have lyrics, but were scrapped; according to Morgan, its original opening line was "The eyes of the victim".

## Release and promotion

Kittie began touring in support of Spit in July 1999, when they performed at the Milwaukee Metalfest. In August, the band toured the United States with Skinlab. Uncomfortable with their growing popularity and dealing with personal issues, Candler informed her bandmates that she was leaving Kittie after their performance at the Big Day Off in Hartford, Connecticut, in September 1999. The band quickly recruited Talena Atfield, a friend of Mercedes' whom had attented a number of Kittie's early shows, as her replacement. Atfield had never played bass prior to Mercedes asking her to join the band; she learnt all of the album's songs within one week. Following a warm-up show, the band performed at the CMJ Music Festival in New York City, where a live music video was film for Spit's lead single, "Brackish". Candler's departure forced Kittie to delay Spit in order to change its artwork and re-record "Paperdoll", which she had sung lead vocals on. Atfield performs bass on the re-recording of "Paperdoll". Morgan would later credit Candler's departure with making Kittie a "more serious" band.
In October 1999, a three-song sampler featuring "Brackish", "Spit" and "Charlotte" was sent to radio stations. Spit was initially released on November 13, 1999, but its production was short-lived as shortly thereafter, Ng was absorbed into Artemis Records, who delayed the album so they had enough time to promote it through radio speciality stations and in the press. By January 2000, Kittie had been featured in Chart, CMJ New Music Monthly, Interview, Kerrang!, Mademoiselle, Rolling Stone, Spin, and in an MTV News 1515 report. Artemis also organized a internet marketing campaign with MyPlay.com, through which visitors were offered a free download of "Brackish" and "Choke". Spit was reissued by Artemis on January 11, 2000, with different artwork and photographs, featuring pictures of Atfield in place of Candler. Sony Music handled the album's distribution outside of the United States. "Brackish" was released as the album's lead single on the day of its reissue. The song received heavy airplay on WAAF, and entered rotation on MTV, The Box, and MuchMusic. On June 5, 2000, Kittie released "Charlotte" as the album's second single. The song's music video, filmed with director Lisa Rubish in early May 2000, was an MTV hit. It was named "Buzzworthy" by MTV shortly after its release, and became one of the most played music videos on the channel during July 2000. On December 12, 2000, the band released the Paperdoll extended play (EP), featuring a remix of "Paperdoll" and some live tracks recorded at the Hultsfred Festival in Sweden in June of that year.

## Touring

From January 7 to 29, 2000, Kittie toured America with Slipknot and Will Haven. The members of Kittie left high school prior to the tour, and later dropped out in favour of doing a GED. In February, the band toured with Sevendust. On February 23, 2000, Kittie performed "Brackish" live on Late Night With Conan O'Brien. From February 28 to March 5, 2000, they toured the United Kingdom, again supporting Slipknot. Between April 7 and April 10, 2000, Kittie played three Canadian dates with Slipknot. Kittie then embarked on an American tour with Chevelle, Shuvel and the Step Kings from April 27 to May 28, 2000. On May 31, 2000, the band were interviewed and performed on the talk show Later. In June 2000, the band toured Europe and performed at the Dynamo, Hultsfred, Rock am Ring and Rock im Park festivals. On July 11, 2000, Kittie released the home video Spit in Your Eye, featuring performance footage and interviews filmed during the band's tour with Slipknot.
Kittie toured Europe with Suicidal Tendencies before returning to the United States to headline the second stage of Ozzfest. They were the youngest, and only female act, on that year's bill, and second overall after Drain STH. Artemis wanted Kittie to begin recording a new album after Ozzfest, but the band didn't feel ready to end touring then. From September 5 to 16, 2000, Kittie embarked on its first tour of Canada. After a tour supporting Pantera was cancelled due to vocalist Phil Anselmo falling and breaking two ribs, Kittie formed a headlining tour with Mudvayne, Apartment 26 and Factory 81 that ran from November 18 to December 1, 2000. Between January 19 and February 17, 2001, Kittie performed on the SnoCore Rock Tour, after which they began working on material for their next album.

## Critical reception

Professional ratings :
| Review scores ||
| Source | Rating |
| AllMusic | |
| Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal | 7/10 |
| Entertainment Weekly | B+ |
| Kerrang! | |
| NME | 4/10 |
| Q | |
| Rock Hard | 7/10 |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Select | |
| The Village Voice | C+ |
Arion Berger of Rolling Stone deemed the album "fairly good-natured for an exercise in repetitive maximum aggro". Roxanne Blanford of AllMusic deemed it "simultaneously retro and progressive in its blunt musical expression". Canadian journalist Martin Popoff felt that Kittie could rock "heavily and smartly" and praised their songwriting as "way beyond [its members] years". Beth Johnson of Entertainment Weekly highlighted its "corrosive and melodic" qualities. Though finding it "pedestrian" at times with its "juvenile lyrics and typical metal growling", Mark Earnest of the Reno Gazette-Journal considered it the work of a "great basic hard-rock band". Lalane Fissure of The Village Voice praised Richardson's production and Kittie's ability to mix melody with "dirgelike" instrumentation but found Morgan's lyrics juvenile and unintentionally funny. Valerie Potter of Q praised Richardson's production but felt that its songs were "largely unremarkable", whilst Tanya Richardson of The Stranger found the album repetititve after a "strong start". Caroline Sullivan of The Guardian described its music as "unlistenable doom-metal" and felt that Morgan's lyrics were "lost in the maelstrom of her upper register."
Steve Morse of the Boston Globe described most of the album as "standard-issue shock-rock". Billboard's Michael Paoletta remarked that "Everything about Spit is supposed to be titillating-from the jailbait visual image of the act's four teen female members to the winking yet completely harmless lyrical content. Alas, everything about the project seems a tad too calculated to actually trigger the desired response." Roman Sokal of Exclaim! criticized Kittie for focusing on "shock novelty" and accused Richardson—whom he called the "only hinge of credibility" on Spit—of "using enough overtly suspicious studio trickery" to make the album sound "synthetic". NME believed that Kittie "could be one of the most (uncom)promising fem-centric rock'n'roll bands of the new millennium", but were "too conscious of the nu-metal zeitgeist to affect any real menace." Although he considered it musically unchallenging, Stuart Muirhead of Select believed that the album "underlines the fact that it's Kittie's ability, as much as their novelty value, that makes them so remarkable".
In his "Consumer Guide" for The Village Voice, Robert Christgau remarked that Spit was "Proof that Korn fans aren't sexist—they were just waiting for four cute teenage girls to come out bellowing 'Get Off (You Can Eat a Dick).' Waiting so eagerly, in fact, that whether the girls bellowed loud enough was beside the point." In a subsequent interview with Rolling Stone, Christgau said he approved of what Kittie did but felt that they "[didn't] do it well" compared to the Donnas; he also expressed concern that the band would provide "an excuse [for guys] to say, 'Ah bullshit, girls suck and they can't play rock & roll.' ". Amy Sciarretto of CMJ New Music Report praised Morgan and Bowman's performance and asked listeners to see past the band's image to hear their "no-holds-barred metal". Oliver of Metal.de was disappointed by people paying more attention to Kittie's looks than their music, which he felt was "easily in the top leagues". Expressing similar sentiments, Michelle Solomon of the Detroit Free Press believed the band was more mature than its peers Korn and Limp Bizkit. Leivers considered the "unanimously [...] astonishment" shown towards Kittie's all-female status in contemporary reviews of Spit an example of the "rampant misogyny of the [2000s] metal scene" the band were exposed to following the album's success.

## Commercial performance

Ng had initially pressed 8,000 copies of Spit. According to Morgan Lander, "Those 8,000 copies were gone in like the first fucking week". On January 29, 2000, Spit debuted on the US Billboard 200 chart at number 147 with 8,800 copies sold, and two weeks later on February 19, it topped the Billboard Heatseekers Albums chart. The album reached its peak position of number 79 on April 15, 2000. On October 17, 2000, Spit was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), signifying the album had shipped in excess of 500,000 copies in the United States. On account of this, Geri Miller of Billboard called Kittie "the most successful female band in modern metal" in December 2001. As of April 2003, the album has sold over 660,000 copies in the country. "Brackish" and "Charlotte" respectively charted at numbers 31 and 35 on the Billboard Active Rock Tracks chart.
Outside the United States, Spit had sold 100,000 copies in Europe by February 2001. "Brackish" and "Charlotte" both charted on the UK Singles Chart, at numbers 46 and 60, respectively. The album was comparatively less successful in Canada, where only 40,000 copies had been sold by April 2003. Its poor performance in Kittie's home country was attributed to a lack of radio support—although their music videos were aired on MuchMusic—and the band's lack of a touring base, having only embarked on its first tour of its Canada towards the end of 2000. In an April 2000 interview with Chart Attack, Morgan said that Artemis had "shunned" Kittie's attempts at an earlier tour of Canada and pushed for touring the United States instead, but said they did not want to come off as "neglecting" the country.

## Aftermath

Much of the press attention surrounding and following the release of Spit focused on the ages and genders of Kittie's members, which they disliked. Morgan felt that media outlets were more interested in Kittie's perceived novelty than in their music. Mercedes felt that most of the press attention surrounding Kittie and Spit was "the wrong kind of press" because journalists had not properly researched the band and viewed them as "just some pop band", and later claimed that Artemis revealed the ages of Kittie's members to the press against their wishes. In later years, Morgan and Mercedes both felt that the album had created a stigma around Kittie. In an 2012 interview Canada Arts Connect, Morgan said that Kittie had struggled to overcome the negative media slant on Spit and questions surrounding their "merit and validity" to " 'prove' ourselves as a viable band worthy of praise and appreciation within the metal community. We have always been considered outsiders, in a way, and have had a hell of a time being taken seriously."
Kittie's subsequent albums abandoned the nu metal style of Spit in favour of a more "straightfoward metal" style; Morgan later said that this was partially influenced by negative associations surrounding nu metal in the mid-to-late 2000s, and to "prove ourselves as more than just [...] a one-trick-pony-type thing". For a time, Kittie stopped performing songs from Spit live, as the band "wanted people to see who we are now and what we have accomplished since then", according to Morgan. The band dropped "Choke" and "Paperdoll" from their setlists in 2001 and 2002, respectively, with singles "Brackish" and "Charlotte" following suit in 2008. Kittie would not play those songs again until October 2017, where the band reunited with Candler and Bowman (who left in 2001) to perform the songs as part of an anniversary concert at the premiere of their Kittie: Origins/Evolutions documentary at Rum Runners in London, Ontario. Kittie did not play "Do You Think I'm a Whore?" for almost 20 years until 2023, when they performed at the Sick New World festival. None of Kittie's subsequent albums have matched the success of Spit. Merlin Alderslade of Metal Hammer characterized Kittie's post-Spit career as "a mixed bag", with label conflicts, lineup changes and the death of bassist Trish Doan in 2017 "all stalling any further momentum" for them until the release of their seventh album Fire (2024).

### Legacy

Retrospectively, Spit is regarded as one of the greatest nu metal albums of all time, appearing on lists by Kerrang!, Loudwire, Metal Hammer, and Revolver. Hit Parader ranked the album as the fourth on its 2007 list of the "All-Time Top 10 Female-Fronted Metal Discs". Additionally, "Brackish" appeared on Fuse's "19 Best Nu-Metal Hits of All Time" list in 2015, and was ranked number 23 on Spin's "30 Best Nu Metal Songs" list in 2017. In 2013, Adam Steininger of Westword credited Spit with "[inspiring] a whole new generation of women" in metal. In an 2019 Kerrang! article, Serena Cherry, guitarist and vocalist of Svalbard, credited the album with "[blazing] a trail for me and so many other women in metal that came after them." In 2023, American musician Poppy released a cover of the album's title track, which Morgan approved of. That same year, Rolling Stone ranked the album's title track at number 82 on their list of "The 100 Greatest Heavy Metal Songs of All Time". According to Emma Madden, writing for Revolver in 2024, the success of Spit helped Kittie define nu metal and "[pave] the way for women in the heavy-music space going forward." Also in 2024, Paul Travers of Metal Hammer ranked Spit as the second-best of Kittie's seven albums, behind Oracle (2001). Whilst acknowledging they had "made more accomplished albums", Travers remarked that
   [Kittie have] never matched the raw exuberance and teenage angst of Spit. Rightly or wrongly, this remains the iconic sound of the band for many people. It was certainly one of the most explosive introductions of the nu metal era, with [...] a latent sense of heaviness that would soon come bursting out.
By the 2020s, Kittie had become more accepting of the album and their association of nu metal. In a 2021 interview with Consequence, Morgan said in the time she had spent "away from [Kittie]", she had "come to appreciate the things that we accomplished early on and the balls that we had back then. In an interview with The Rockpit in 2025, Morgan said that although Kittie still considered Spit a "chip on our shoulder" that they needed to prove themselves beyond, she observed how "the impact of that single album has lasted for the duration of our career. We are, 25 years later, still talking about the album. People are still listening to the album, a lot of them. And so it's really interesting to me that it has had the staying power." The band has plans to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Spit in 2025. In an interview with Metal Hammer the previous year, she said she could "neither confirm nor deny" the possibility the band would release a re-recording of the album.

## Track listing

All songs are written by Kittie.

## Personnel

Adapted from liner notes.

## Certifications

| Region | Certification | Certified units/sales |
| United States (RIAA) | Gold | 660,000 |