If early indications hold true, the rock venom Kittie spewed on their debut, Spit, will only get deadlier on its follow-up.

"They're pretty much full, balls-out metal songs," singer/guitarist Morgan Lander said from her parents' London, Ontario, home recently. "If they were included on Spit, they would have been the most aggressive tracks. ... [These songs are] not as naive and innocent."

Spit, which included such ditties as "Brackish," "Suck," "Choke" and "Do You Think I'm a Whore," dripped with unforgiving, caustic rock featuring angry and blunt, feminist lyrics. "There's always room for improvement," Morgan said of the group's desire to push its aggression further this time around.

Kittie — whose lineup also includes Mercedes Lander (drums), Fallon Bowman (guitar) and Talena Atfield (bass) — road tested two of the new tunes, "Pain" and "A Mouthful of Poison," during their recent headlining tour and run on SnoCore.

"You know how sometimes when artists play new songs, people just stand around and gawk?" Morgan said. "None of that happened — they just kind of beat each other up even more."

"Pain," which Morgan wrote while Kittie toured on Ozzfest last summer, reflects on the stresses of a grueling tour schedule.

Since coming off SnoCore last month, the four have been jamming out songs in the basement of Morgan and Mercedes' parents' house — just like the old days. But they're also giving themselves some time to rest up and heal from the road. "We're discovering we have all these repetitive strain injuries — we're all falling apart," said Morgan, who at 19 is the oldest member of Kittie.

The band has about six or seven songs written so far, including a more upbeat sung-not-screamed tune that Morgan compared to Spit's "Charlotte" and a six-and-a half minute number that may close the album. Morgan described the epic as "dirgy, slow, very dark, mysterious and evil." Though intent on keeping the album heavy, Kittie are playing around with some acoustic material as well.

The band will likely work again with Spit producer GGGarth (Rage Against the Machine, L7) when it hits the studio in early summer. "He lets us do whatever the hell we want, which is kinda nice," Morgan said.

Depending how the album is coming along, Kittie may take a break from the studio to play some European dates this summer. They hope to have the record out in the fall.

Metal Edge magazine recently named Kittie the Most Underrated Band, but the group went home empty-handed at this month's Juno Awards, Canada's equivalent to the Grammys. That may have saved Morgan, who recently hit the legal drinking age in Ontario when she turned 19, from at least one nasty hangover.

She said she'd "booze it up, get really drunk, and puke everywhere" to celebrate a Juno victory.