With Symphonies of Sickness, Carcass kept the grindcore sound of Reek of Putrefaction and added a death metal style.

[2] Compared to their previous album, Symphonies of Sickness contains a shorter track list in exchange for longer and more complex songs.

Ned Raggett of Allmusic gave Symphonies of Sickness a four star review praising the album's depth in comparison to its predecessor Reek of Putrefaction.

Raggett singled out "Exhume to Consume" as the main highlight of Symphonies of Sickness and called it an all-time Carcass number.

A limited edition (featuring the "gore" cover artwork) was once released containing 16 bonus tracks taken from the Reek of Putrefaction album.