In a 2011 interview with The Quietus, Daniel Stewart explained that he had been reading Friedrich Nietzsche for his honours thesis at the time of the recording for Henge Beat.

Pitchfork Media's Martin Douglas praised the album for not being "simply a 36-minute post-punk genre exercise" and the band for exploring "different realm of possibilities in every song, punctuating creeping lurches with ear-splitting explosions and delivering spacey instrumentals not incredibly far removed from elevator music right after.

"[5] Similarly, Jedd Beaudoin of PopMatters complimented the various styles evident on the album, ranging from the "King Crimson-tinged 'Shame Thugs'" to the "Joy Division-inspired 'The Hammer'" to the "Sonic Youth-cum-Can-cum-Television romp 'Carpet Rash'" to the "sheer early '80s aggression" of lead single "One More Tonight".

[6] Doug Wallen of The Vine called the album "thin and metallic without being shiny or clean" and said it is "gripped by mood swings, though not to its detriment.

"[8] Rob Sheffield, writing for Rolling Stone, ranked it the 7th best album of the year, describing it as "[j]agged postpunk grooves by a bunch of Australian black-leather boys, not the kind of band you invite over for dinner.