Scott Laird (violin) and Jim Winters (guitar)—who both played with the band previously—also contributed to the album as session musicians.

[6] Eye Level Studios created the album's artwork; a live model was masked and photographed wearing actual horns.

[3] In an interview with Fazer magazine, Bachman stated they plan to release an artbook based on the cover art with Eye Level Studios.

[7] Kurt Bachman commented that the album sounds like a "sick, insane cross between Tool, Voivod, Nine Inch Nails and Destruction.

Greg Prato of AllMusic gave the album 3.5 points out of 5 commenting that, despite being 16 years in silence, Believer is "automatically back in business."

Prato notices that the album is closer to the band's origins, as it contains "few nods to vintage late-'80s/early-'90s metal" although "a challenging, almost proggy edge can be detected in all the manic six-string riffing and growling, especially on such tracks as the album-opening "Medwton," plus "Focused Lethality" and the slowly building "The Brave.

He also stated that "Gabriel could easily have been released years ago as the immediate follow-up to Dimensions" and praised the album: "Metal isn’t supposed to sound this good."

Criticism was given for the elements of keyboard, sound and voice programming throughout that Beck felt were "slightly overused" as he wished that the band would have "let the music stand by itself".