In the Black is the fifth studio album by Canadian heavy metal band Kittie, released on September 15, 2009, through E1 Music. It was the band's first album with bassist Ivy Jenkins, who joined in 2007. Recording sessions for the album were held with producer Siegfried Meier at Beach Road Studios in Goderich, Ontario, in November and December 2008. A groove metal, heavy metal, and thrash metal album incorporating elements of black metal, metalcore and melodic death metal, Kittie intended In the Black to be the "antithesis" of their previous album Funeral for Yesterday (2007), whose production and style they were disappointed with.

In the Black received some of the strongest reviews of Kittie's career; some music critics considered it Kittie's best album and praised the album's musicianship, though others considered its improvements and songwriting unremarkable. The album debuted at number 133 on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 3,400 copies in its first week. Kittie toured in support of the album from September 2009 to September 2010, performing in North America and Europe. The band also joined the 2010 Thrash and Burn Tour and embarked on supporting tours with Insane Clown Posse and DevilDriver.

Music, writing and recording

"My Plague"
The lead single from In the Black is a metalcore and groove metal song[1] that combines "mammoth musical composition" with a melodic chorus[2] and screaming.[3]
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In the Black has been described as groove metal,[4] heavy metal,[5][1] and thrash metal.[6] Incorporating elements from Kittie's previous four albums,[7] it displays influences from black metal, metalcore, and melodic death metal,[4][8] and mixes clean singing and crooning[2][3] with black metal and death metal-inspired growls and screamed vocals.[5][9] Kittie intended the album to be the "antithesis" of their previous album Funeral for Yesterday (2007), whose production and style they were disappointed with.[10][11][12] Morgan said that Kittie intended to make In the Black a faster, rawer and "more outlandish" album representative of how they sounded live.[13] The album was Kittie's first with bassist Ivana "Ivy" Jenkins, who joined in 2007.[14] Jenkins was supposed to have auditioned for the band in 2005,[15] but was unable to due to her car getting totalled.[16]

Whilst on tour in the summer and fall of 2008, Kittie began "sketching out ideas" for In the Black.[14] In July, they played two new songs, "My Plague" and "Sorrow I Know", in Fayetteville, North Carolina.[17] Morgan and Mercedes described the songwriting process as more collaborative than that of Funeral for Yesterday;[18][19][20] both members wrote most of the album's material together before seeking McLeod's input,[18][21] with Jenkins contributing basslines at the end.[20] Mercedes credited McLeod and Jenkins with making the album sound "multi-dimensional and complete";[19] McLeod said she "realised her value in [Kittie]" when the band began using her riffs and guitar parts.[22] The band had finished writing In the Black by August 2008,[20] although vocalist and guitarist Morgan Lander said the band did not coalesce their ideas and songwriting until they left their previous record label later that year,[14] something Amy Sciarretto of Noisecreep would attribute some of the album's "anger" to.[10]

Kittie recorded In the Black at Beach Road Studios; the studio's tracking room is pictured.

Without the backing of a record label, Kittie recorded In the Black in three weeks between November and December 2008 with producer Siegfried Meier, at his newly constructed Beach Road Studios in Goderich, Ontario.[16] Kittie first worked with Meier on their second album Oracle (2001), where he was credited as an assistant engineer.[16][18] For the album, Meier purchased a Studer A827 tape machine, which was used to record its vocals, guitars and bass parts; Mercedes Lander's drums were recorded digitally.[23] Morgan would record two takes for her vocals and select the best one.[18][24] Meier said that Kittie wanted to avoid having too many vocal harmonies and "glisteny, polished, airy things" on the album.[25] Mercedes considered its recording to be closest to their debut album Spit (1999), in that Kittie "got to do exactly what we wanted, how we wanted it",[26] and praised Meier's production, saying that he was "the first producer [Kittie have] worked with that knows metal and knows what we want to sound like. ... [In the Black] is the first album that we've recorded that I'm totally happy with."[18]

The album's title is a play on the financial term "in the red".[27] Mercedes said that being In the Black "doesn't mean you're clear of all your problems, but you're on your way to doing better. That's kind of how we [Kittie] feel right now [...] we're on our way towards making a full recovery."[27] The album was Kittie's first since Spit to feature its members on the cover, and was intended to show the band's growth from the album.[26] The album was dedicated to David Lander,[24] Kittie's former manager and Morgan and Mercedes' father, who died in August 2008.[20]

Release and promotion

Kittie performing at the Opera House in Toronto in March 2010

On June 26, 2009, Kittie announced that they had signed a three-album record deal with E1 Music.[28] The band chose to sign with the label as they had previously worked with a number of its personnel in the past,[29] including its vice president of Metal, Scott Givens, whom they had known for over 10 years.[27] On July 18, 2009, the band revealed the track listing for In the Black;[30] Also in July 2009, Kittie worked with director David Brodsky on two music videos, for "Cut Throat" and "Sorrow I Know".[29][30][31] The former features the band performing the song inside an abandoned department store in Brooklyn.[31] The "Sorrow I Know" video was filmed at the Backroom in New York City on July 26, 2009.[32] The band invited its fans to participate in the video shoot, which featured a 1920s/1930s speakeasy theme.[29][32][33] On August 1, 2009, Kittie played at the Altered Skin Revolution festival in Saginaw, Michigan, where they performed "Cut Throat" live for the first time.[34] "My Plague",[35] "Cut Throat",[36] and "Sorrow I Know" were uploaded to Kittie's MySpace between July and August 2009.[37] "Cut Throat" debuted on Sirius XM's Liquid Metal station on August 31, 2009.[38] The music video for "Cut Throat" was released on September 3, 2009.[31] In the Black was released in the United States through E1 Music on September 15, 2009, and in Europe through Massacre Records on October 23, 2009.[39][40] It was released as a CD and on vinyl, the latter in limited quantities.[41] The album debuted at number 133 on the US Billboard 200 chart, selling 3,400 copies in its first week.[39][42] The album also reached number 18 on the Billboard Top Hard Rock Albums chart and number 23 on the Billboard Top Independent Albums chart.[42] Following its release, Kittie embarked on a headlining tour of the United States supported by Soil, Red Line Stitch and Arkaea from September 27 to October 29, 2009.[43][44][45]

On January 14, 2010, the "Sorrow I Know" video premiered on Noisecreep,[46] with an "uncut" version arriving on February 8, 2010.[47] Also in January, the band toured Europe with It Dies Today and Malefice. Forever Never and Magnacult provided additional support on select dates.[48] In March 2010, they embarked on a co-headling tour of North America with God Forbid.[49] Periphery and Gwen Stacy opened for both bands from March 3 to 11 and March 14 to 21, 2010, respectively.[49] On May 4, 2010, Kittie filmed a music video for "Die My Darling" with director John Barber, which was released on June 7.[50][51] Morgan and Mercedes initially planned the video as a spoof of the Quentin Tarantino film Death Proof (2007), and it "just turned into its own kind of thing".[52] From May 10 to June 8, 2010, Kittie embarked on their first supporting tour since 2000,[20] for Insane Clown Posse on their Happy Daze tour.[53][54] The tour was one of the last things David Lander organized for Kittie prior to his death, and that Violent J and Shaggy 2 Dope had previously invited the band to join their tours but had turned them down.[54] Although Kittie considered themselves an outlier as they were "the only band who played instruments",[52] the tour went "unbelievably well" for the band, according to Morgan;[55] Mercedes said the band managed to sell "a box of CDs per night" of the tour.[56] From July 16 and August 15, 2010, Kittie participated in the 2010 Thrash and Burn Tour, featuring Asking Alexandria, Born of Osiris, Impending Doom and Motionless in White.[57] From August 25 to September 25, 2010, the band supported DevilDriver on a tour of North America, alongside Kataklysm and Hostility.[58][59] Following the tour, Kittie took a small break before starting work on their next album, I've Failed You (2011).[60]

Critical reception

Professional ratings
Review scores
SourceRating
AllMusic[5]
Blabbermouth.net7.5/10[3]
Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal8/10[4]
laut.de[6]
Metal.de6/10[1]
Metal Rules2.5/5[8]
Rock Hard8/10[61]
Time Off[2]
Ultimate Guitar7.3/10[7]

According to James Reaney of The London Free Press, In the Black received "some of the best reviews in Kittie's decade-plus career".[62] Some critics considered it to be the band's best album.[7][52][61] Keith Bergman of Blabbermouth.net and Rock Hard's Marcus Schleutermann both applauded the album's musical "conviction"; the former considered it to be "the biggest metal shock of 2009".[3] Denise Falzon of Exclaim! was surprised by the quality of the album's sound and songwriting, singling out Morgan's vocals and McLeod's "catchy riffs" for praise.[63] Ultimate Guitar also highlighted Kittie's stronger musicianship and chemistry on the album and believed that had "perfected [the] formula [...] they've been mixing for nearly ten years".[7]

James Christopher Monger of AllMusic stated that In the Black only "fortifies what [Kittie have] been standing on for the last decade".[5] Waspman of Metal Rules considered it "relatively impressive as a step forward for Kittie", but "not [...] for anyone else."[8] The A.V. Club's Leonard Pierce and Time Off's Kenada Quinlan both highlighted the album's improved musicianship but criticized Morgan's vocals,[2][9] whilst Michael Edele of laut.de found its guitar solos were "sloppily or just cheaply [played]".[6] Jan Wischkowski of Metal.de praisied the album's consistency but considered it only "above-average" due to a lack of standout tracks.[1]

In The Collector's Guide to Heavy Metal: Volume 4: The '00s (2011), Canadian journalist Martin Popoff praised the album's grooves and variety and compared the Kittie favourably with Sinergy.[4] Paul Travers of Metal Hammer ranked it fifth out of band's seven studio albums, remarking it was the first album that saw them combine their melodic and aggressive sensibilities "into a single hulking whole."[64] In a 2020 Reddit AMA, Morgan and Mercedes both named In the Black as the Kittie album they are most proud of.[65]

Track listing

All songs written by Kittie.

No.TitleLength
1."Kingdom Come"1:29
2."My Plague"3:05
3."Cut Throat"2:55
4."Die My Darling"2:46
5."Sorrow I Know"3:30
6."Forgive and Forget"3:44
7."Now or Never"2:35
8."Falling Down"3:08
9."Sleepwalking"3:17
10."Whiskey Love Song"4:29
11."Ready Aim Riot"3:13
12."The Truth" (featuring Justin Wolfe)6:41
Total length:41:00

Personnel

Adapted from CD liner notes.[66]

Charts

Chart performance for In the Black
Chart (2009) Peak

position

US Billboard 200[42] 133
US Top Hard Rock Albums (Billboard)[42] 18
US Top Independent Albums (Billboard)[42] 23

Release history

Release history for In the Black
Region Label Format Date Catalog # Ref.
United States E1 Music
September 15, 2009 KOC-CD-2050 [41]
Australia Shock Entertainment
  • CD
  • DD
 September 18, 2009 KOCCD2050 [67]
Europe Massacre Records
  • CD
  • LP
  • DD
 October 23, 2009 MAS CD0672 [68]

References

Citations

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  2. ^ a b c d Quinlan, Kenada. "Album Reviews". Time Off. Archived from the original on October 17, 2009. Retrieved May 24, 2023.
  3. ^ a b c d Bergman, Keith (September 8, 2009). "In the Black". Blabbermouth.net. Archived from the original on July 18, 2014. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  4. ^ a b c d Popoff & Perri 2011.
  5. ^ a b c d Monger, James Christopher. "Kittie: In the Black". AllMusic. Archived from the original on June 18, 2018. Retrieved August 6, 2018.
  6. ^ a b c Edele, Michael (October 23, 2009). "Plätschert vor sich hin und kommt nicht aus der Hüfte" [Splashes along and doesn't come from the hips.]. laut.de (in German). Archived from the original on May 29, 2023. Retrieved May 29, 2023.
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  62. ^ Reaney 2009.
  63. ^ Falzon, Denise (December 21, 2009). "Kittie: In the Black". Exclaim!. Archived from the original on March 27, 2023. Retrieved March 27, 2023.
  64. ^ Travers, Paul (July 21, 2024). ""A highly consistent and often underrated catalogue": Every Kittie album ranked from worst to best". Metal Hammer. Archived from the original on July 22, 2024. Retrieved July 22, 2024 – via loudersound.
  65. ^ MorganLander (January 11, 2020). "Hey! This is Morgan and Mercedes Lander, founding members of the metal band Kittie. Today is the 20th anniversary of our debut album "Spit". To celebrate, we are here to answer your burning questions. Ask Us Anything!". r/numetal | Reddit. Archived from the original on April 4, 2025. Retrieved April 4, 2025.
    • MorganLander: I think we all may have pride for many different reasons but I think In The Black is the one I am most proud of. It was a vicious reinvention and I love every song.
    • MercedesLander: Probably In The Black. We had a few bad years personally and we recorded that album as we were crawling out of the gutter once again.
  66. ^ Kittie (2009). In the Black (booklet). Port Washington: E1 Music. KOC-CD-2050.
  67. ^ "Kittie In the Black". Shock Entertainment. Archived from the original on March 31, 2011. Retrieved May 26, 2024.
  68. ^ "Kittie: 'In The Black' First-Week Sales Revealed". Blabbermouth.net. September 23, 2009. Archived from the original on April 18, 2023. Retrieved May 29, 2023.

Bibliography

Further reading

Allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Black
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