Barry Andrews was again joined by founder, Dave Allen, and longtime collaborator Martyn Barker, as well as Karl Hyde.

AllMusic's Jason Ankeny said that "the advantages of 20/20 hindsight proves the group to have been well ahead of their time, their music predating the subsequent rise of electronica via its use of dub and drum'n'bass-styled sampled rhythms... Sacred City lacks the ingenious spark of such peak Shriekback efforts as Oil and Gold and Big Night Music, but their intellectual art-funk always makes for intriguing listening.

"[1] Spin magazine featured it in their "Heavy Rotation" column of staff favourites, with Staci Bonner describing it as an "evocative concept album exploring the myths of cities around the world".

[2] Jim Sullivan of The Boston Globe called Sacred City "a probing, atmospheric album -- not unlike some of Peter Gabriel's music" but noted that it had only sold "a modest 30,000 copies.

"[3] Writing for The Seattle Times, Ken Hunt remarked on the use of "tribalistic drumming" and summarized the album as "a thematically unified collection of songs analyzing what urban life is all about.