[13] The album was inspired by the music of Suicide, Cabaret Voltaire, Chrome, Throbbing Gristle,[14] Nocturnal Emissions, Portion Control, and The Legendary Pink Dots,[15] accessible to the band primarily via tape exchange.

[16] Skinny Puppy experimented with analog and digital recording techniques, composing multi-layered music with synthesizers, drum machines, acoustic percussion, tape loops, samplers, and conventional rock-music instruments to create what they called "audio sculpture.

"[17][18][19][20] Their extensive use of sampling from horror films and radio broadcasts would "clarify or obscure" song meanings;[21] they applied distortion and other effects to Ogre's vocals,[22] which were often delivered as a stream of consciousness.

AllMusic writer Steve Huey criticized the album for failing to convey its concepts, but concluded: "Still, credit must be given to the band for having finished the record at all, and in its own way, the confusion of The Process speaks volumes".

[2] Nicholas Maltezos of The Record gave the album one out of four stars: "Skinny Puppy's sound was certainly original – the group's synthesizer-dominated rock could have easily served as the background music for a dream sequence in a horror or sci-fi movie.

[45] Ben Mitchell of Select also criticized the album: "An unerring inability to distinguish arse from elbow throughout results in a flimsy 11-track approximation of a gang of mildly irritated moped riders attempting a stage invasion at a Jean-Michel Jarre concert".

[49] Steve Byrne of the Detroit Free Press said that "Goettel and Puppy devotees deserve a better epitaph than The Process", and the album was "bogged down in [the] B-horror-movie mode that the band has explored more relevantly before".

Sandy Masuo of the Los Angeles Times described the album as "full of intriguing vagaries" and filled with "driving dance grooves, both choppy and smooth", calling "Candle" a "suitably moody swan song".

[43] Malcolm X. Abram of The Atlanta Constitution praised the band's experimentation with new sounds and styles, saying that the album "may final[ly] garner this musical institution some attention outside the protective umbrella of industrial fans".