As with the rest of Pure Heroine, "Glory and Gore" was written by Lorde and Joel Little, recorded at Golden Age Studios and produced, mixed and engineered by Little.

[8] "Glory and Gore" also portrays an empowerment theme; PopMatters' Evan Sawdey described it as a "dark" version of Katy Perry's "Roar" (2013).

[12] Originally, "Tennis Court" was going to be the third US single,[13][14] but the record labels changed to "Glory and Gore" instead after it was featured in History's promotional campaign for the second season of its historical television series, Vikings.

[6] Jon Hadusek of Consequence of Sound wrote that "Glory and Gore" did not fit in with the minimal production found in the majority of Pure Heroine.

[21] John Murphy from MusicOMH was critical of the latter half of Pure Heroine, writing "by the time 'Glory and Gore' and 'Still Sane' roll around, the template's starting to sound a bit tired.

"[22] Following the release of Pure Heroine, "Glory and Gore" appeared at number 17 on the New Zealand Artists Singles Chart dated 7 October 2013.

[32] In 2014, Lorde opened her show at Roseland Ballroom and her Coachella Festival set with the song,[33] and performed it at Lollapalooza in São Paulo, Brazil and in Buenos Aires, Argentina.