In their 1999 book VH1 Rock Stars Encyclopedia, authors Dafydd Rees and Luke Crampton described it as "mixing elements of blues and jazz into an otherwise uncompromisingly intense punk-metal set.

"[11] Regarding the mixture of styles on The End of Silence, guitarist Chris Haskett said in 2020, "there was never a strategy or plan for writing the music so it wouldn’t be right to say we intended to combine anything in particular.

"[7] The End of Silence has received positive reviews from critics, and as of 1996 had sold 260,000 copies, making it their most commercially successful release prior to 1994's Weight.

He observed that the singles received substantial airplay on MTV's Headbangers Ball program, writing that the album "further cemented Rollins' profile with yet another audience: metalheads.

[22] In February 1992, Billboard gave it a positive review, writing that, "Henry Rollins makes the leap to the majors without compromising [their] ear-bending sound, which creamed unsuspecting audiences at the Lollapalooza tour last year.

"[23] Jon Dominguez of Californian paper the Palo Verde Valley Times wrote in October 1992 that "The End of Silence is very intense and it sounds and feels so real", adding that "some of the tracks are over ten and eleven minutes long, but I never lose interest.

"[24] Steve Hochman of the Los Angeles Times gave it a three and a half rating out of four in March 1992, and labelled it as the "crowning achievement" of Rollins' career.

[15] In December 1992, music writer Chris Morris named it as one of his ten best records of 1992, praising the band for "pushing outside of the hard rock envelope.

[27] In a 2006 retrospective on the making of the album, Albert Mudrian of Decibel magazine wrote, "while Kurt Cobain was altering the course of popular music’s history, underground icon Henry Rollins and his band were busy eating cheese sandwiches, avoiding the temptations of nearby stripper joints, and putting a masterpiece of dark, angular grooves and introspective firestorms to tape.