[5] The album sold approximately 1,100 copies in its first week in the United States, reaching number 49 on the Billboard Top Heatseekers chart.

[6] Though Vertebrae's sound is rooted in black metal, AllMusic's Eduardo Rivadavia describes the album's sound as incorporating elements of jazz and art rock,[2] while Blabbermouth wrote that Enslaved incorporate psychedelic influences and "have traveled light-years beyond the chainmail trappings that defined their early attempts at progressive black metal".

Rivadavia also notes the "recurring dynamic contrasts between sheer violence and exquisite splendor" of the "multifaceted" and "frequently unpredictable" songs.

Writing for AllMusic, Eduardo Rivadavia wrote that "Enslaved continue to represent the absolute evolutionary cutting edge of extreme metal, delivering in Vertebrae yet another spectacle of imagination and quality control, matched only by Sweden's equally consistent Opeth."

Blabbermouth also praised the diversity and creativity of the album, writing that, "The best thing about Enslaved is that they expanded their sound without discarding anything from their past – black metal, their mid-period doomy vibe, the prog-rock spaciness of the last couple records, all mashed together in an improbable cohesion."