Expanding on the post-black metal and soul sound of their previous album, it was preceded by the singles "Gravedigger's Chant", "Waste" and "Built on Ashes".

[6] The title of the album is a reference to "Strange Fruit" by Billie Holiday, a song about racism and lynching of African Americans.

[13] The front cover features a green Granny Smith apple almost entirely obscured by the band's logo and a purple foreground.

Each single features the apple in various states of disrepair; bruised ("Gravedigger's Chant"),[14] chopped in half ("Waste"[15] and "Built on Ashes"[16]), and with bites taken out of it ("You Ain't Coming Back"[17]).

We just bought an apple and figured we needed to mess it up as a reference to The Beatles album and the forbidden fruit and also the poem from Billie Holiday.

"[19] "Servants", described as more melodic than other tracks,[20] and featuring tremolo guitar[21] is about "either a slave revolution" or a "message to the American Middle class".

[19] "The Hermit" is one of four instrumental tracks on the album (alongside "The Fool", "Solve" and "Coagula"), which serve as "breathers for your ears before the heavy parts".

[7] "We Can't Be Found" was the song that was worked on the longest, being described as "a bunch of riffs and beats we managed to amalgamate into something cohesive.

Loudwire praised the album, stating "The talent and vision Manuel Gagneux possesses is rarer than the strangest fruit, and it would be a crime to sleep on this magnificent piece of art.

Stranger Fruit is Album of the Year material and will surely be celebrated as the record which solidified Zeal & Ardor as irrefutably significant".

"[3] Echoes and Dust also gave a positive review, stating "Stranger Fruit then is an album that bridges a gap between genre and meaning, and by extension between past and present.

"[36] The National Student, in a 5 out of 5 review, stated "This is modern metal's Terminator 2; its Empire Strikes Back; its Dark Knight – a sequel so well-executed that it surprisingly but undeniably leaves a fantastic original in its dust.

That is not to take away from the eye-bulging intensity on display here, though... Stranger Fruit is a singularly raging proposition, and one that is still worthy of the Luciferian seal that adorns its cover.

"[34] Dansende Beren gave the album 4.5 out of 5 stars, stating "We do not like to mention the word masterpiece, but other than this, Stranger Fruit is almost impossible to describe.

Zeal & Ardor has created 13 songs that flawlessly integrate the band's doleful disposition and phonic soul with instrumental ferocity".

"[39] In a 9/10 review, Kill Your Stereo stated "With 'Stranger Fruit', Zeal & Ardor are unlike any other band making waves through black metal, blues and other underground music circles of late.