It is a dystopian concept album and rock opera presented as the final free radio broadcast of a fictional disc jockey named Will 'o the Wisp (voiced by writer Stephen King), who, in defiance, plays the music of the fictional hard rock band Hierophant, whose music has been banned from airplay, on the evening before his radio station is to be taken over by the government to be used to air propaganda.

[2] The website Bloody Disgusting said of the album's style, "Musically, Black Ribbons is a mind-blowing opus that completely obliterates genre distinctions.

On this unprecedented work, twanging dobros coexist with Nintendo chipsets; brutally assaultive passages alternate with moments of unabashed tenderness, and surreal Floydian soundscapes float above smoking slabs of whiskey-soaked southern soul.

"[10] Black Ribbons is a concept album[11] and rock opera[12] set in a dystopian near future, presented as a broadcast by fictional disc jockey "Will 'o the Wisp", during his last night on the air before the U.S. Government takes control of the airwaves.

[13] According to Jennings, "The whole album is kind of this big concept record about truth, and about the importance of love and two people connecting.

When I was doing this record, I was reading a lot on everything, from past civilizations to government conspiracies to UFOs to the brief history of time to books on the occult.

He spends his last hour on the air delivering a diatribe about the decline of America, and playing the music from a radical band, Hierophant.

[26] In 2016, a deluxe edition of Black Ribbons was released ahead of that year's presidential election, with Jennings telling Rolling Stone, "We’re pretty close to [the album's storyline] now.

And one day the final executive order is going to be, 'Well, you people can't handle being around each other, so we're going to have to step in and set rules.'

"[11] Although Stephen Thomas Erlewine described Black Ribbons as being "more exhausting than challenging" in his review for AllMusic, he said that "it's hard not to marvel at Jennings confidence [sic] in his Frankenstein metal-prog".

[2] Writing for PopMatters, Stephen Haag wrote that "Jennings seems, sadly, to have confused quantity with quality, and effort with execution.