DC Fuse

This snarling, sensual group of gals from the Great White North bring new meaning to the adage "The men don't know, but the little girls understand." Belying the fact that they're barely out of their teens, Morgan Lander and company showcase both a keen musicianship and a startling sense of dynamic on this sophomore outing. Yes, they're capable of spewing out tunes as corrosively ugly as any of their male competition -- as they prove on the demonically intense "Mouthful of Poison" -- but Kittie knows more than one way to skin a tune. Lander can issue {|Corgan|}-esque pleas for understanding (like the soaring "In Winter"), meld sweetness and brutality (as on "What I Always Wanted"), or paint in shades of psychedelia (as on the wonderfully dizzy "Pink Lemonade"). There's plenty of aggression on Oracle, particularly in the furious drumming of Mercedes Lander, but rather than merely spattering their songs with random noise-bursts, the band layers their fuzzy, gradually escalating guitar riffs with clear-eyed precision. Oracle guarantees at least nine lives for these three thrash-rock femmes fatales.