ever been on, it will be hailed ten years from now as a classic." Chairman Mao of Rolling Stone remarked that "Kool Keith leads and oversees the chaos with a Zappa-esque commitment to decadence." Alternative Press praised the album's "deep, dubby bass lines, spooky melodic riffs and consistently heavy beats", while The New York Times called it "one of the most progressive rap projects to be released in the past year." JazzTimes lauded Thornton's lyrics, writing that his "...oddball excursions reach near-cinematic levels." Melody Maker called it "bloody essential" and stated, "While commercial American hip hop is slithering into an insipid mire of soulless, identikit swingbeat, Dr. Octagon has made an album swathed in character [...] Get yer prescription fixed." The Source awarded Dr. Octagonecologyst 3.5 out of 5 mikes, calling it a "quality album with the proper ingredients". In a more critical review, Entertainment Weekly writer David Browne praised the album's production but disliked Thornton's "inane, often gruesome" lyrics, instead recommending the album's instrumental counterpart Instrumentalyst to listeners. Following initial reactions to the album, Dr. Octagonecologyst continued to earn praise from contemporary writers and music critics. In the Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music, the album received a rating of four out of five stars. In The New Rolling Stone Album Guide, Peter Relic described it as a "slab of mondo bizzaro brilliance... totally unlike anything else and totally right". PopMatters columnist Michael Frauenhofer called it "a landmark album of dope beats and mind-bending experimental flows." Steve Huey of AllMusic wrote that the album "remains as startling and original as the day it was released." In 2017, Pitchfork reviewer Nate Patrin wrote that "Dr. Octagonecologyst still feels as much out of its time as it does out of its mind." Thornton, however, has since dismissed the album, saying that it unfairly overshadows his later work, and that the only new audience it attracted was white. Influence Allmusic reviewer Steve Huey wrote that Dr. Octagonecologyst "...attracted more attention than any non-mainstream rap album in quite a while, thanks to its inventive production and Keith's bizarre, free-associative rhymes." Huey also states that Dr. Octagonecologyst represented "...the first truly new, genuine alternative to commercial hip-hop since the Native Tongues' heyday. It appealed strongly to alternative audiences who'd grown up with rap music, but simply hadn't related to it since the rise of gangsta". Thornton expressed some frustration with the Dr. Octagon nickname, saying,