From the first few bars, this album grabs you by the throat and doesn’t let go.
It’s a little abstract, and might take a few listens to grow on you, but it’s the perfect meld of classic hip-hop beats and robot-march production. After this album, El-P’s tracks got a little distracting, to me at least, but “The Cold Vein” blends seamlessly.
The lyrical tag-team work of Vast Aire and Vordul is also something to marvel at. Dense, dense poetics, with metaphors and symbolism crammed into every verse; they often sound like they’re cursing, even though they’re not.
In the first cut, “Iron Galaxy,” Vast paints a bleak picture of New York that sets the gritty tone for the rest of the album: “Let’s talk in laymen’s terms/rotten apples and big worms/early birds and poachers/New York is evil at its core/So those who have more than them/Prepare to be victims/Ate up by vultures/Politicians in a dog-eat-dog culture/That’ll sic ’em.”
Throughout the album, a dark, violent undercurrent runs through each song, from the syncopated “Vein” to the angelic stomp “A B-Boy’s Alpha” to the brilliant closer, “Pigeon.”
Of course, it’s not for everybody. There is not one club-ready beat on the whole LP, and those who are going from the window to the wall will probably miss a lot of the clever one-liners and metaphors, but real heads recognize, and “The Cold Vein” is something a lot of MC’s could learn from.
1. Iron Galaxy
2. Ox Out the Cage
3. Atom (with Alaska & Cryptic Of Atoms)
4. A B-Boys Alpha
5. Raspberry Fields
6. Straight Off The D.I.C.
7. Vein
8. The F-Word
9. Stress Rap
10. Battle For Asgard (with L.I.F.E. Long & C-Rayz Walz Of Stronghold)
11. Real Earth
12. Ridiculoid (with el-P)
13. Painkillers
14. Pigeon
The Hip Hop Post 