[3] Matt Mills of WhatCulture called the album "perfect union of melody, brutality and intricacy that [Death] had been building towards ever since Scream Bloody Gore.

[3] Shaun Lindsley of Metal Hammer called the album a "labyrinth of technicality and cerebral lyrical meanderings displaying unsurpassable musicianship," while also describing its tracks as "catchy" and "incredibly accessible".

[4] Journalists have made note of the apparent influence of European heavy metal bands Sortilège and H-Bomb present on the track "Crystal Mountain."

Looking back on it in hindsight, while the songs on "Symbolic" hold up as if no time has passed, it's almost laughable to think of the hue and cry Death's perpetual shifts in direction caused."

In a contemporary review, Select stated that "there're still lashings of gristly, growling vocals and head-in-the-groin thrashing to be had" as a listener can "snuggle up to witness what dark depths Death's 12-year career has taken them too [sic]".

[18] Canadian journalist Martin Popoff considered the album "the band's most impressive and crossover-ish to date", combining conventional metal, "traces of doomy, Germanic melody and heaps of progressive might.