[4][5] AllMusic reviewer Jack Rabid wrote that while The Future Is Medium was not as "heavy, proud, and mighty as Comforter," the former was "just as edgy and takes more chances".

[6] Marcus Schleutermann of Rock Hard wrote that the punk boom would end that summer but Compulsion would remain due to having "enough identity of their own to be able to survive in the long term".

[1] In a review for NME, Kitty Empire wrote that Freehard helped the band give "birth to 16 songs so bouncy they could punch a hole in your hi-fi casing".

She added that the album was "chock-a-block with lethal hooks that dig in and fester, buzzing with the kind of riffs that have you cartwheeling".

[7] Paul Brannigan of Louder called the album a "fiercely intelligent and painfully relevant examination of societal ills and the draining of hope and humanity in the name of 'progress'.