Until the End (Kittie album)
Until the End is the third studio album by Canadian heavy metal band Kittie, released on July 27, 2004, through Artemis Records. It was their only album with bassist Jennifer Arroyo, who joined in March 2002. The album was recorded in March 2004 with producer Steve Thompson at Long View Farm Studios in North Brookfield, Massachusetts. It expands upon the death metal stylings of Kittie's previous album Oracle (2001), whilst incorporating more melody and dynamics into their sound. Kittie wrote the album whilst they were engaged in a lawsuit with Artemis, and its lyrics and artwork reflect the band's feelings of uncertainty and "being suffocated and held down" during this period. After recording concluded, Kittie recruited guitarist Lisa Marx so they could tour in support of the album. Until the End received mixed reviews from critics, who were divided over its maturity and progression from Kittie's earlier output. The album sold 19,000 copies in its first week to debut and peak at number 105 on the US Billboard 200 chart, whilst its only single, "Into the Darkness", reached number 116 on the UK Singles Chart. After two promotional tours in support of the album, financial difficulties caused by a lack of touring support from Artemis led to the departures of Arroyo and Marx from Kittie  in February 2005; the following month, the band parted ways with the label and went on a hiatus. Background 
In November 2001, Kittie released their second studio album, Oracle. Following a tour of Europe in support of the album, Kittie parted ways with bassist Talena Atfield on March 2, 2002. Jennifer Arroyo, formerly of the rap metal band Spine, was quickly recruited as Kittie's new bassist before a tour of the United States later that month. Arroyo had first met Kittie vocalist/guitarist Morgan Lander and drummer Mercedes Lander in 2000, when both of their bands performed on Farmclub.com. Morgan and Mercedes felt that Arroyo brought a "a new element" to Kittie with her technical and melodic playing style; during the band's subsequent live performances, they would let her play improvised bass solos to show off her abilities. On April 1, 2003, Kittie filed a lawsuit against its record label, Artemis Records, and its parent company, Sheridan Square Entertainment, claiming unpaid royalties from the label. The lawsuit prevented Kittie from going into the studio to record a new album, and band were unsure if they would still be around after the litigation to release one. To cope with the uncertainty, they began working on new material. "I felt like that helped give [the band] some hope", Arroyo stated. By late June 2003, Kittie had written "Look So Pretty", "Career Suicide", "Until the End", "Burning Bridges" and "Loveless". The band debuted their new songs in the summer of 2003, on their Kiss of Infamy Tour. Mercedes said that playing the songs live helped them mature and made the band more comfortable recording them. Morgan Lander wrote most of Until the End guitar riffs, lyrics and melodies, with Mercedes and Arroyo contributing some additional arrangements and their own drum tracks and basslines to the album, respectively. Describing the album's writing process to Metal Edge, Morgan stated: "it starts with a riff and idea, everyone adds their personal touch to the song, and it becomes that song." Recording and production 
On March 1, 2004, it was announced that Kittie and Artemis Records had settled their differences out of court, and the band commenced recording their third album at Long View Farm Studios in North Brookfield, Massachusetts with producer Steve Thompson, marking the first time the band had recorded outside of their hometown of London, Ontario. Morgan said that the band chose to record at Long View Farm because of its isolated nature and because if offered "the full package; you sleep here, you eat here, [so] you [can] focus on your task". Recording lasted three weeks, with the band working for at least twelve hours a day at the studio. The band spent little time doing pre-production, as they had finished writing and arranging all of their songs before they went into to record them. The basic guitar, bass and drum tracks for Until the End were done in the first week of recording; Mercedes' drums were tracked in the space of three days. The following week, Morgan finished recording her vocals. Until the End was recorded onto two-inch analogue tape, with minimal digital editing; Kittie mainly played through equipment used for their shows in an attempt to capture their live sound. No click tracks were used. Morgan said that Thompson's approach to recording was "more to focus on the song itself ... He wanted to focus on each song individually and get it right before we move onto the next one. So each song kind of has its own sound and its own personality." Thompson and the band would spend time attempting to get specific guitar tones and sounds, sometimes by experimenting with his array of instruments and pedals, and other times by recording in different rooms at the studio. In between recording sessions, Kittie held auditions at Long View Farm for a new guitarist to replace Jeff Phillips, who left the band at the end of 2003 so he could work full-time on his other band Thine Eyes Bleed. After trialling out six or seven people, the band recruited Lisa Marx, formerly of the hardcore band To See You Broken. Kittie knew of Marx after becoming acquainted with some of the members of To See You Broken at a Seattle show—although they did not actually meet her there. Mercedes—who mistakenly believed she had met her in Seattle—reached out to Marx online, and she and the band ended up connecting over their shared sense of humour. Artemis Records announced the addition of Marx to Kittie's lineup, as well as Until the End release date, on April 26, 2004. Composition

Music 
Until the End has been described as death metal, heavy metal and thrash metal. The album expands upon the death metal stylings of Oracle, and features more melody and dynamics than the aforementioned album. The album contains heavy riffs, double bass drumming, as well as screaming, growling, snarling and clean singing. As with Kittie's previous albums, its songs are written in the tuning of drop C.

Until the End is more musically complex than the Kittie's previous albums, featuring fluctuating time signatures and stuttering beats, although there are no guitar solos. Morgan also felt that in contrast to the band's previous albums Spit and Oracle, where "the bass player would play the root note of whatever [guitar] chord it was", it features varied basslines; in a 2004 interview with the Dallas Music Guide, Arroyo cited Metallica bassist Cliff Burton as a significant influence on her playing style. On "Into the Darkness", Kittie experimented with the use of a vocal harmony between screamed and melodic clean vocals, and with a key change in its last chorus; Morgan felt that it was "the most difficult song [she'd] ever written lyrically and vocally". A "Vocal Remix" of the song, featured as the album's final track, removes the screamed vocals. Lyrics 
The album's lyrics largely reflect Kittie's feelings of uncertainty and "being suffocated and held down" amidst their legal struggles with Artemis, a theme which is also reflected in its artwork. They also cover "personal experiences" and "situations, relationships, [and] human nature". Morgan said that the album's opening track, "Look So Pretty", is "the answer to some menacing things that someone had directed towards—It's angry, alright!". When asked by The Metal Exiles if "Career Suicide" was intended as a foreshadowing, Morgan said that it "is something that [has] already happened.... but it’s funny". "Pussy Sugar" is about "seeing someone you care about go through a dark, unfortunate time, and standing back and seeing that there's absolutely nothing you can do". The band came up with the song's title as a joke whilst on tour in November 2003. Mercedes said: "We were in a Waffle House, and we were just thinking of stupid names and funny stuff, and someone yelled, 'Pussy Sugar!' And Morgan was like, 'New song number one is being called 'Pussy Sugar!' ". Morgan stated that "In Dreams" is about "me being crazy, and thinking that I'm going crazy ... I'm not sure if it's because of the stress of everything that's happened over the years, so it's me wondering if I really am crazy". "Into the Darkness" concerns "The idea of not knowing", and "just being afraid of the unknown". "Daughters Down" is about "being held down, like you're being held underwater", and "People being vindictive, and always having someone who doesn't get you", according to Mercedes Lander. Morgan said that the song's title "refers to holding the people down that should be treated like daughters", with its chorus "describing the people that should be caring". In an interview with Hit Parader, Morgan stated that the album's title refers to Kittie's feelings of perseverance. "We're in this until the end. There's no turning back. We're lifers. We've been doing this for as long as I can remember, and hopefully we'll be doing it for a long, long time to come." Reception

Commercial 
Until the End was released in the United States on July 27, 2004. The album sold 19,000 copies in its first week of release to debut at number 105 on the US Billboard 200 chart, and number four on Billboard Top Independent Albums chart. The album's only single, "Into the Darkness", was released to radio stations on June 29, 2004. It was also released as a single in the United Kingdom on August 9, 2004; it reached number 116 on the UK Singles Chart, becoming Kittie's most recent single to chart there. Kittie filmed a music video for the song, directed by Greg Kaplan and Rafaela Monfradin, which made its debut on MTV2's Headbangers Ball on June 19, 2004. The video also received rotation on Fuse and Kerrang! TV, with the latter channel selecting it as the "Video of the Week", dated August 18 to 24, 2004. Critical 
On review aggregator website Metacritic, Until the End holds a score of 56 out of 100, based on reviews from seven critics, which indicates "mixed or average reviews". Ox-Fanzine described its compositions as "again as flat as they are superfluous", and felt that Kittie "haven't grown up". Despite noting some "faintly creative moments" on the record, Exclaim! Jill Mikkelson similarly perceived the album's main selling point to be Kittie's "juvenile riot grrrl attitude". In a negative review, George Smith of The Village Voice described Until the End as "Slayer played with a third of the impact, Pungent Stench without direct attacks on the Vatican, and Grave with a smaller, lighter cookie monster on vocals." Blabbermouth.net also lamented Kittie's "rudimentary" songwriting skills and "mediocre" talents on the album, which they described as a "murk of generic metal". Rock Hard Jan Jaedike commented that although the album's sound was not completely removed from Kittie's earlier nu metal output, its songs had "real hit character". According to Kerrang! Nick Ruskell, "Kittie sounds more like their own band these days than the Machine Head-ettes of old". Billboard said that it has "more melody and memorable riffs" than Kittie's previous albums, with "Into the Darkness" being singled out as is the band's catchiest song to date and [deserving of] success". Conversely,  D.X. Ferris of the Cleveland Scene panned the "Into the Darkness" as Kittie's "worst song yet", whilst criticizing the album's lack of sonic experimentation and Morgan's dependency on the "cheap duality of her demon growl/angel-swoon vocals". NME Pete Cashmore noted the album's attempts to incorporate "subtlety and nuance" into the thrash metal genre, but felt that they were "to the detriment of a style that should always be about brutality and aural punishment". Despite noting "an adherence to formulaic modern metal clichés" on some of the album's later songs, AllMusic reviewer James Christopher Monger felt that "if [Kittie] can find a way to more creatively disperse their newfound power they'll be unstoppable." Bjorn Randolph of Stylus Magazine argued that Mercedes' tight sense of groove and Morgan's "dual vocal personae" gave Until the End "the swing and the sing" necessary to differentiate themselves from other heavy metal bands. In a 2022 retrospective of the album, MetalSucks labelled the album a "perfect example of an awesome band proving their worth to the worthy after all of the fair-weather fans aimed their attention elsewhere." Touring and aftermath 
From July to August 2004, Kittie embarked on their own headlining tour with supporting acts Candiria, 36 Crazyfists and Twelve Tribes. The band also performed on one of Roadrunner Records' RoadRage 2004 tour dates at the Worcester Palladium in Massachusetts on August 6, 2004. The rest of the band's headlining tour dates were cancelled after Mercedes was hospitalized due to severe dehydration and exhaustion prior to a show in Cleveland, Ohio on August 11, 2004. On September 7, 2004, Kittie announced that they would be teaming up with Otep and Crisis for the Metal Movement Tour, which lasted from September 27 to November 10, 2004. Kittie formed the tour with the intention of bringing awareness to the presence of women in heavy metal. Despite previously promising to promote the band, Artemis Records offered Kittie little, if any, touring and promotional support for Until the End, forcing Morgan and Mercedes to pay Arroyo, Marx and the band's touring costs using their personal finances. Due to their worsening financial situation, Morgan and Mercedes told Arroyo and Marx after Kittie finished touring that they would not be able to pay them a retainer for some time. Marx was upset by this, and left the band in February 2005: "[S]he wanted to know where her money was and all of this stuff and it was like, 'Well, sorry, there is none' ", Morgan said. Morgan and Mercedes agreed with Arroyo to announce Marx's departure on April 1, 2005, but Arroyo left Kittie shortly thereafter to pursue work with her other band, Suicide City, which she felt allowed her to have "a more prominent role in the creative process". Morgan and Mercedes had anticipated Arroyo's departure, and the split was considered amicable by both parties. Morgan announced Marx and Arroyo's departures through a statement on Kittie's official message board on March 23, 2005, whilst the band were in contract negotiations with Artemis. In the statement, she blamed the label's lack of support for their departures, saying: "We don't blame [them] for leaving. Financially and emotionally, our troulble [sic] with the label has done nothing but break our spirits. How can we insure a future for them when we DON'T EVEN KNOW WHAT OURS WILL BE? As long as we are with Artemis, I can't guarantee anything...". A week later, on March 31, 2005, Kittie announced that they had amicably parted ways with Artemis due to "a proposed amendment to the recording budget for the pending fourth Kittie album", after which Morgan and Mercedes put the band on hiatus for six months. Reflecting on the album in Kittie: Origins/Evolutions (2018), Morgan said:

"Honestly, I like a lot of the songs on Until the End. I don't know [anything] that I regret a lot. Listening back, I kinda maybe wish that we had done things a little bit differently in the studio. Maybe a different producer. Maybe even a different studio. Mind you, ... it was a really fun, awesome recording process. We had a lot of fun, it was a really really great time." Track listing
All songs written by Morgan Lander. Notes

 Additional arrangements on tracks 1 and 5 by Jennifer Arroyo
 Additional arrangements on tracks 1, 2, 4 to 7 and 11 by Mercedes Lander

The official title of track 5 is "Pussy Sugar", as listed in the album's liner notes, but is listed as "Sugar" on the album's tray card and Spotify. Personnel
Personnel per liner notes.Kittie
 Morgan Lander – guitars, vocals
 Jennifer Arroyo – bass
 Mercedes Lander – drums
 Lisa Marx – live guitar
Artwork
 Geoff Mack – artwork
 Morgan Lander – artwork concept
 Reinhold Scherer – photography
 Brett Weiss – layout design
Production
 Steve Thompson – producer, mixing
 Ian Hatton – engineer
 Devin O'Connell – engineer
 Mike Lapierre – engineer
 Ted Jensen – mastering 
 John Arraya – guitar technician
 John Magnum – drum technician

Charts

Release history

References 
Notes

References

Bibliography 
Print sources

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Audiovisual (AV) sources

External links 

 Until the End on YouTube (streamed copy where licensed)

2004 albums
Kittie albums
Artemis Records albums
Albums recorded at Long View Farm