[3] The album's title was loosely inspired by The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters, an etching by Spanish painter Francisco Goya.

The album's title and lyrical themes are a commentary on terrorism, extremist views on ideals, religious dogma, and the violent implications of "being asleep, so to speak, or not reacting to what's going on in the proper way".

[4] Concerning the album artwork, Tomas Haake stated: "It was a hard one in the sense that you don't immediately have a visual to the title The Violent Sleep of Reason – how do you portray that?

In advance of the album, three songs were released on the YouTube channel of the band's record label, Nuclear Blast.

A review by Max Frank on the popular site Metalsucks.net gave the album five out of five stars and described it as a "tour-de-force; a total deconstruction of heavy music.

"[18] The review focuses on a paradox between what it describes as complex composition structures that seem to critique the norms of the metal genre, and some of the band members' professed ignorance of music theory.

"[19] Stefan Andonov of Prog Sphere wrote, "They continue their tradition of producing 'punch-you-in-the-face' aggressive music that is hard to follow, but The Violent Sleep of Reason will completely satisfy the fans of the band and surely attract more metalheads to fall in love with the phenomenal art they create.