The Cold Vein, Cannibal Ox’s 2001 debut, was years ahead of its time. Like Wu-Tang Clan had just landed from outer space, Harlem MCs Vast Aire and Vordul Mega mixed a slow and lyrical style that was all New York with a sound that came from Venus; a heavy mixture of metal and sci-fi influences. Now, after a 14-year absence, the pair are back with the 19-track Blade of the Ronin, a pretty straightforward piece of boom bap hip-hop that sounds less like the future than the past. Much of that is surely down to the absence of Cold Vein producer El-P (now best known as half of Run the Jewels). His music there was abrasive, but also rich and melodic. His replacement here, Bill Cosmiq, attempts the same combination on tracks like Sabertooth, but can’t match the intensity. Elsewhere, as on Blade: The Art of Ox, he falls back on a familiar Wu-inspired mixture of pitched-down soul samples and thumping beats. While the sound has lost its edge, the MCs – Vast Aire in particular – still possess great verbal imagination. Iron Rose, which also features MF Doom, has Aire riffing on the title and forming a series of fantastical, sometimes nonsensical images; from kids eating iron candy to tides on metallic seas. “You can ask Sir William” he concludes (without explaining who the heck that is). “My favourite rock band is Iron Maiden.”
