After a 13-year gap between studio albums and no sure promise that they'd ever be back, pioneering Canadian metal outfit
Kittie
made a glorious and hard-won return with their seventh studio album,
Fire
. Exploding out of the gate with heaven-shaking growls of ¿I am fire!¿ and ¿I still wear this crown," the
Morgan Lander
-fronted quartet sounds ravenously hungry and ferocious after so much time away from the scene. Along with
Morgan
's sister and founding drummer
Mercedes Lander
,
2024's lineup is rounded out by guitarist
Tara McLeod
and bassist
Ivana "Ivy" Jenkins
. Together on this triumphant comeback, they sound like they still have something to prove, reminding the general public that they're trailblazers and have been an underrated force in metal since their rabid 1999 debut
Spit
. With the sharp production prowess of
Nick Raskulinecz
(
Korn
Evanescence
), their punishing brand of metal has been polished and elevated into something more effective than ever on tracks like "Vultures" and "Eyes Wide Open," adopting a cinematic scope with haunting atmospherics and a deft blend of melody and brutality. Everything hits harder, from the catchy hooks and dirty grooves to the band's focused attack and
's vocals, which have only improved over the years as they switch between powerful clean singing and demonic gutturals. Of the standouts, ¿We Are Shadows¿ is a towering highlight with its rousing singalong chorus and intense machine-gun percussion, while the ferocious ¿Wound¿ sounds like old-school
, punctuated with a stadium-sized guitar solo. Meanwhile, the stomping "One Foot in the Grave¿ is tailor-made for crowd participation. Simply put,
shows a stunning maturation and evolution for
, one that makes this big return justified and offers hope for a new era in the band's long and winding history. ~ Neil Z. Yeung