Oracle (Kittie album)

In November 1999, Kittie released their debut album Spit, through Ng Records. Shortly after the album's release, Ng was acquired by Artemis Records, who gave the album a wider release on January 11, 2000.[2] The album was a commercial success, becoming certified Gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA),[3] and the band promoted its release with heavy touring and appearances on the Ozzfest and SnoCore tours in 2000 and 2001.[4][5] In June 2000, after a change in management, Artemis Records pulled the band's touring support and pressured Kittie to begin recording a new album after Ozzfest; the band resisted, feeling that they weren't finished touring.[6][7] After returning from SnoCore in February 2001, the label gave Kittie three months to write their next album[8] and the band begun jamming new material together at the Lander sister's parents' house in London, Ontario.[9]

In an interview with NME in January 2001, lead guitarist and vocalist Morgan Lander stated that Kittie's next album would be "more aggressive" than Spit.[5] The band had written around seven songs by that point, and two of them, "Pain" and "Mouthful of Poison", had already been performed live.[5] In another interview with The GW Hatchet the following month, Morgan noted how the band members were only 14 years old when writing their debut album and that "We haven’t written in 4 or 5 years."[10] She acknowledged a change in influence from their early days, stating, "Then we listened to bands like Nirvana, Silverchair, and Alice in Chains. Now we listen to stuff like Cannibal Corpse and Nile."[10]

The writing sessions for Oracle proved to be difficult and frustrating for Kittie. As with Spit, the band would composing the music first, and then using that "as the backdrop behind the vocals."[10] In contrast to Spit, which saw all of the band's members contribute,[11] Oracle was primarily written by Morgan and Mercedes Lander, aside from a cover of Pink Floyd's "Run Like Hell", credited to David Gilmour and Roger Waters.[12] Mercedes found writing to be particularly hard, as she had not "come into to [her] own for writing songs" at the time.[13] During the album's writing process, relations between Morgan Lander and guitarist Fallon Bowman began to deteriorate. Bowman struggled to deal with the increased pressure on the band,[14] and her attempts to incorporate influences of the music she was listening to at the time—techno, German industrial music and black metal—were met with resistance from Morgan, who was set on pursuing an extreme metal sound.[15] Tensions came to a head at a rehearsal for a radio show on Memorial Day (May 28, 2001), after which Bowman quit the band.[15][16] Her departure, which was not announced until August 2001,[17] resulted in the band recruiting Jeff Phillips to perform guitar "bed tracks" on the album.[18]

As with Spit, Kittie recorded Oracle at EMAC Recording Studios in London, Ontario with producer Garth Richardson, between July 21 and August 14, 2001.[19] The band chose to work with Richardson again, because "He lets us do whatever the hell we want", according to Morgan.[9] Due to the Lander sister's "knowing what they wanted to do", according to Richardson, the album's recording was substantially easier and enjoyable for the band.[20] Morgan also acted as an uncredited co-producer on the album.[21]

Oracle has been described by critics as death metal,[22][23][24] nu metal,[25][26] and thrash metal.[27] According to Spin, Oracle "drops its predecessor's alt-rock affections in search of a 'pure metal' sound".[28] The album contains heavy, chopping guitar riffs and percussion,[29][23] and features screamed, growled and clean singing.[30][29][31] Garth Richardson felt that on Oracle, Kittie "were almost trying to be edgy Slayer. But Slayer never goes after hit songs."[32] The album's sound was also compared to Pantera.[22][33]

The album's lyrics range from "personal politics to metal's classically Germanic themes: Nietzschean angst, schadenfreude, and weltschmerz."[28] "Mouthful of Poison" concerns "professional jealousy", whilst "Severed" is about "feeling hopelessness and abandonment", according to Morgan Lander.[28] "Pain", which Morgan wrote during the Ozzfest tour in the summer of 2000, discusses "the stresses of a grueling [sic] tour schedule".[9] Kittie's cover of "Run Like Hell" was initially recorded for a scrapped Pink Floyd tribute album, before the band decided to include it on Oracle "to get it out of our hair", according to Morgan Lander.[34]

Explaining the album title, Morgan stated:

"An oracle speaks of truth, and sort of foresees the future. This album is a coming-into-our-own album. We've found our own sound, and it's our truth. If you're not feeling in your heart what you're putting in to music, it's not worth a thing-I'm all about integrity, and keeping things pure and true, the way you intended them to be. There is a lot of emotion manifested into this really aggressive, raw sort of album, and it comes out in the music. I found out after we named the album that our ears have an oracle, and so do our hearts-So Oracle pertains to music, emotions, your heart. There's a lot that is intertwined."[35]

Three singles were released from Oracle. The lead single "What I Always Wanted" was released on October 9, 2001,[36] and peaked at number 36 on Billboard's Active Rock chart.[37] A music video for the single was released later that month; the Thomas Mignone-directed video, which "concerns the self-destructive consequences of greed",[38] received heavy airplay on the MTV, MTV2, MTVX and MuchMusic channels.[39] "Run Like Hell" was first released as a digital-only single on January 16, 2002,[40] before being serviced to radio outlets. The album's third and final single, "In Winter", was released on May 13, 2002.[41] In addition, Kittie self-financed two live music videos for "Run Like Hell" and "Pain".[1]

All tracks are written by Kittie, except "Run Like Hell", written by David Gilmour and Roger Waters.[12]

Adapted from liner notes.[12]

Kittie

• Morgan Lander: vocals, lead guitar, piano
• Mercedes Lander: drums
• Talena Atfield: bass

Additional personnel

• Jeff Phillips: rhythm guitar

Production

• Garth Richardson - producer, engineering
• Morgan Lander - co-production (uncredited)
• Robert Nation - engineering
• Siegfried Meier - second engineer

Citations

Sources

1. "Amazon". Shoutweb.com. Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved November 10, 2008.
2. "Shoutweb". Archived from the original on July 16, 2011. Retrieved November 10, 2008.

• Oracle at Metacritic