In 1992, Failure signed with Slash Records (an LA-based independent label), and subsequently released two albums; Comfort in 1992, and Magnified in 1994.

The album art is closely based on an illustration by Ed Valigursky used for the book jacket of the first edition of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard's 1954 novel To the Stars.

Subsequently, Fantastic Planet remained shelved for about a year after its completion in February 1995, with the band "unofficially" shopping the album to other labels while hoping that Slash would renew its distribution deal with Warner Bros. Records.

[12][9] Other songs, such as "Saturday Saviour" and "Pitiful", received some airplay from more adventurous-minded DJs, but no more videos were made for any of the album's tracks, and due to the state of disarray at their label at that time, little effort was put into its promotion.

A music video was produced for the single "Stuck on You" which closely resembles the opening credits of the James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me (included on the DVD portion of the 2004 Failure compilation Golden).

In a highly positive contemporaneous review written for The Daily Utah Chronicle in November 1996, Shan Fowler asserts that with the album “Failure separates themselves from the guitar-buzzed masses by balancing thick riffs with intricate arrangements and intelligent lyrics.” Fowler goes on to highlight the album's final two tracks, “Heliotropic” and “Daylight”, as its crowning achievement, writing that the songs are “two manipulated masterpieces with tribal drums, treated guitars, spacey synthesizers and dubbed vocals.

It sounds like a mess when broken down, but flows weightlessly and gracefully in and out of the listeners mind.”[15] In 2009, JustPressPlay named Fantastic Planet the third-best album of the 1990s.

[16] In 2014, Decibel Magazine inducted Fantastic Planet into their Hall of Fame naming it a cult classic and an album that paints its heaviness in a gorgeous way.

In 2022 during the first trailer for the upcoming Failure documentary, record producer and musician Butch Vig acclaims Fantastic Planet as one of his top twenty-five albums.