EP REVIEW: O’HAMSTERS- ‘Kiss My Irish Ass’ (2015)

Drink, Feck, Fight, Ireland!

With the London Celtic Punks gang on tour in Dublin for this last St Patricks Day we missed the bunch of releases that all came out on the glorious 17th so we are now slowly slowly working our way through them for you. One of the best of the bunch is this four track EP from the Ukrainian celtic-punk band O’Hamsters, hailing from Kiev. With a bunch of solid releases, both albums and EP’s, behind them they have risen to the top of their scene and have been recognised by those in the know as one of the best bands around.

The EP starts off with ‘Kiss My Irish Ass’ a cover of the classic celtic-punk standard written by Frank Mackey of the American band The Keltic Cowboys. Starting off slowly before thrashy guitars and celtic instruments, a wee ska bit and growly lead vocals and shouty gang choruses storm in and set the pace for rest of the EP.

“We’re stubborn as mules, with our blood on fire,
When we ain’t at Sunday mass
We’ll look any man straight in his eyes
and say “kiss my Irish ass,
you better kiss my Irish ass”

but don’t expect to be able to follow any of the song’s as its all sang in Ukrainian. Not that I mind and I for one applaud them for that. Too many bands sing in English including ones from the celtic nations so it makes for a refreshing change to hear a band singing in their native language. So with it impossible to judge them from their lyrics we have to judge them on their music and luckily for us the rest of the EP is just as worthy with much the same formula as ‘Kiss My Irish Ass’ with tin whistles, fiddles and accordion competing but never smothered by the sometimes loud electric guitars. The final track sounds reminiscent somewhat to me of the great Breton celtic-punk band Les Ramoneurs De Menhirs with a Breton sounding fiddle dominating and female vocals.

All in all yet another great record from a great band and, like a lot of Eastern European bands, they have made it available for free download. You can also go to their Bandcamp page and download all their previous records as well. O’Hamsters have gone a long way with their music but it would be a awful shame if they didn’t get the popularity they deserve simply because they sing in a language other than English for they deserve to be fecking massive!!

(click play below to hear the entire record)

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