Spit is the debut studio album by Canadian heavy metal band Kittie, originally released on November 13, 1999, through Ng Records.

Kittie were formed in 1996, and signed a four-album deal with Ng following their performances at the Canadian Music Week festival in March 1999.

Shortly after Spit's initial release, Ng was absorbed into Artemis Records, who gave the album a wide re-release on January 11, 2000.

Kittie promoted the album with the release of two singles, "Brackish" and "Charlotte", which became radio and MTV hits, and extensive international touring which saw the band perform at the Ozzfest and SnoCore festivals in 2000 and 2001, respectively.

The album reached number 79 on the US Billboard 200 chart and was certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in October 2000.

Kittie was formed in September 1996 in London, Ontario,[3] when drummer Mercedes Lander and guitarist Fallon Bowman met in gym class.

[7] The trio started out playing covers of Nirvana, Silverchair, Deftones and Korn before attempting to write their own material;[5][8] "Brackish" was the first song they wrote together.

[4] In late 1997, they decided on naming themselves Kittie in order to sign up for an upcoming Battle of the Bands competition at Call the Office.

[11][5][16] In March 1999, the band performed at the Canadian Music Week festival in Toronto, where they approached Jason Wyner, second-in-command at Ng Records.

[11] After signing with Ng, Kittie recorded Spit with producer Garth Richardson at EMAC Studios in May 1999, in the span of nine days.

"[28] The members of Kittie were still attending high school at the time, and recording sessions would take place in the evenings after they had dinner and finished their homework at the studio.

[30] Due to the fast nature of recording, the album's drum takes were essentially "one-offs" and no double-tracking was applied to its vocals, according to Morgan.

[28] Richardson said that his input on Spit was limited to helping Kittie choose sounds and suggestions on guitar and drum parts.

[38] According to Exclaim!, Spit "plays like an inconsistent collection of stale 1991-era Pantera and Sepultura B-sides, overdubbed with the occasional 1995 techno sprinkle for a somewhat modern measure".

[45] According to Michael Tedder of The Pitch, "Spit echoes Helmet's precision, Slayer's power and (with some songs dealing with body image and self-esteem issues) even Nirvana's confessional songwriting".

[34] Author Tommy Udo compared Kittie's sound and attitude to heavy metal bands such as Pantera and Machine Head.

[49] According to George Lang of The Oklahoman, "Kittie's lyrics are full of spit and venom, directed at preppy cheerleaders, rich kids, rude boys and women who trade on their sexuality".

Morgan and Mercedes said when they were having dinner with their parents back home in Canada, they received a phone call from the representative of Ozzfest, being asked if they were interested in performing at the tour, requesting a press kit to review.

[95] Roxanne Blanford of AllMusic wrote, "these young women learned well the lessons of predecessors Joan Jett, Lita Ford, and the current reigning queen of angst-rock, Courtney Love".

[46] Phil McNamara of The Worcester Phoenix wrote that Kittie "can throw down heavy head-banging riffs with the best of them, and oh yeah -- they're girls".

[51] Also, Canadian journalist Martin Popoff is quite happy of a girl band which can rock "heavily and smartly", "sounding like vicious hardcore sirens" avoiding "electronic gunk" with only a slight nod to rap metal.

[89] The Oklahoman gave Spit a positive review: "Throw in the fact that they range in age from 15 to 18, and Kittie seems like the perfect weapon to smite Mandy Moore, Britney Spears, Jessica Simpson and Christina Aguilera, forever ridding the music industry of teen-pop".

[39] The Washington Post criticized the album: "All four members of this Canadian metal-punk band are women, which is still a novel (though certainly not unique) lineup for a headbanging ensemble.

[44] NME gave the album a four-out-of-ten rating: "Like kindred spirits System of a Down, Kittie want to give you the impression that they're just too tasty to fuk wit, too unhinged to view as normal folk, too pierced for the mainstream.

[111] In a 2000 interview with Chart Attack, Morgan said that Artemis "know the American market best [and] they are pushing for that" and that the label had "shunned" the band's attempt at a Canadian tour, but did not want to come off as "neglecting" the country.

[...] It's been a struggle to overcome the negative slant that many mainstream media outlets put on Spit and "prove" ourselves as a viable band worthy of praise and appreciation within the metal community.

[118] Morgan also criticized journalists for constantly making puns about Kittie's name—dubbing it "Feline Association Disease"—which she saw as an attempt to reduce the band to novelty status.

[122] For a time, Kittie stopped playing songs from the album live, as the band "wanted people to see who we are now and what we have accomplished since then", according to Morgan.

[125][126] In an interview with Revolver, Morgan said: Our debut [Spit] came out at a time when nu-metal was huge and we were sort of put in that category, but as we evolved as musicians and as players and as a band, we gravitated away from that sound.

[127]Spit made Kittie into one of a few all-female nu metal bands to achieve notable success,[128][129] and later assessments of album have been more positive.