[1] The album received generally positive reviews from music critics, with Wolfe drawing comparisons to PJ Harvey.

[3] After stepping away from the music she had made in her younger years, in the summer of 2009, Chelsea Wolfe embarked on a European tour with a group of performance artists, playing in unusual spaces, including cathedrals, basements, and old nuclear plants for whoever would listen.

"[4] Heather Phares of AllMusic felt that The Grime and the Glow "revealed all [Wolfe] could do with the simplest of tools" and made comparisons to "White Chalk-era PJ Harvey in its desolate minimalism [with] studies in beauty, noise, and terror.

"[6] John Sant for Fine Print Magazine also compared her to Harvey but stated that "Wolfe is more in step with Nick Cave's menacing spiritualism and Chris Goss' trademark empty-desert psychedelia.

"[7] Andrew Sacher of BrooklynVegan characterized the album as "a self-recorded gem which successfully blends dark folk, noise and Grouper-esque ethereality.