Rolling Stone (9/13/01, p.112) - 3.5 stars out of 5 - "...Takes cues from New York underground avatars Company Flow...mixing their bookishness with equal amounts of soul....their rhymes are epic on their own..."
Spin (6/01, pp.148,152) - 7 out of 10 - "...This album has aggro soul....[They] hold up a jagged-edged prism to the very streets they render with such abstract beauty..."
Uncut (8/01, p.108) - 5 stars out of 5 - "...This is hip hop at its most visionary and challenging..."
Alternative Press (10/01, p.87) - 8 out of 10 - "...Uniquely complex and powerful..."
The Wire (1/02, p.41) - Ranked #2 in Wire's "50 Records of the Year 2001".
The Wire (5/01, p.54) - "...This is the best HipHop album for a long, long time. Bloody, grimy, intense, intimidating, tremulous, claustrophobic, but ultimately inspiring....the 'realest' HipHop since ENTER THE WU-TANG..."
CMJ (4/30/01, p.20) - "...A gothic innercity soundtrack dark and idiosyncratic like no other..."
NME (Magazine) (12/29/01, p.59) - Ranked #46 in NME's 50 "Albums Of the Year 2001".
NME (Magazine) (7/28/01, p.42) - 9 out of 10 - "...Fresh, complex genius..."
Cannibal Ox: MC Vast Aire Kramer, MC Vordul.
Additional personnel includes: Alaska, Cryptic, Life, C Rayz Walz.
In sharp contrast to the "Izzo"-dominated airwaves at the time of its 2001 release, Cannibal Ox's debut album, THE COLD VEIN, stood on Company Flow's shoulders, making critics and listeners alike take notice of a strange rap underworld that was indeed alive and gathering strength. El-P's untouchable production work combined off-kilter drums, distorted keyboards, and molasses-thick samples to create an alternately dreamy and nightmarish soundscape over 15 tracks. While the relentless lyrical onslaught of Vordul and Vast Aire had rap fans scratching their heads in between nods when hit with ill metaphors like, "the sample's the flesh and the beat's the skeleton /You got beef but there's worms in your Wellington." No doubt the more prominent of the two MCs, Vast Aire proved himself one of the most wildly inventive lyricists on the planet, with a barrage of intricate rhyme schemes and anomalous delivery. THE COLD VEIN also stands among El-P's best work as a producer, and is perhaps the most powerful album to come out of the Definitive Jux label.
