The Ottawa Hoax - 'Kid Gloves, Made With Real Kids' (self released) 4.5/5

I first encountered Bristol hardcore / metalcore outfit The Ottawa Hoax a good few years ago when my old mate, and former band buddy Jim Cogan was producing their debut demo, and I was impressed with what I heard. then as is often the case with local and unsigned bands they dropped off my radar, but now they are back with this their latest ep.

There are four cuts on offer and I am finding this one really enjoyable.We start with God's Rottweiler a delightfully brutal little exercise in blending old school hardcore attitude and aggression with more modern metalcore sensibilities, and it works really well, there is none of the cliche clean v dirty vocal interplay going on. Yes there are clean and dirty vocals but they are blended together so well the transitions are barely noticeable, and the result is a sweet little mosh your brains out opus that makes even this old hippy want to start a circle pit.

Next up is Mendeleev, a slightly more experimental opus that comes over like Melt Banana meeting Rolo Tomassi for one helluva fucked up blues jam. Chuck in the Converge influenced Odourdose and the Gay For Johnny Depp meets AFI fueled Kid Gloves with sweet acoustic passages inter-cut with some first rate hardcore brutality and the result is a sweet little ep that is gonna win this lot a lot of friends.


Recommended - Highly recommended

For fans of.. Converge, Rolo Tomassi, The Hotel Ambush, The Bled....