After the rigid, limiting effects of almost-finished demos for Music for the Masses, Gore, agreeing to Wilder's request, kept them less complete this time around.

Several of the basic recordings consisted of vocals over a simple guitar or organ part, with the odd percussion loop, but less sequenced material.

[9] The band convened to work on the record with Flood at Mute's WorldWide programming room in London for three weeks after which they flew to Milan for the new sessions at Logic studios.

'"[7] With "Halo", Gore said, "I'm saying 'let's give in to this' but there's also a real feeling of wrongfulness [...] I suppose my songs do seem to advocate immorality but if you listen there's always a sense of guilt.

"[7] In a contemporary review for Melody Maker, music critic Paul Lester called Violator "Depeche Mode's most arresting work to date.

"[27] Tim Nicholson of Record Mirror was enthused by the stripped-down quality of the songs and called the album a "compromise between pop music and something a little more sinister", adding: "There are no noises out of place in this perfectly formed void.

"[28] Ian Cranna of Q found the music subtly clever and deemed Violator "a fine record which may not set the world on fire but deserves to singe it a bit.

"[29] NME writer Helen Mead felt that the album "seems almost a step back, in that it's cleaner, sparser, more clinical" than Music for the Masses, but concluded that "there is security in the knowledge that everything is very clear cut in Depeche Mode's blue and white world.

[19] Rolling Stone magazine's Chuck Eddy said that, despite the album's "ambient charm", Gahan sounds "slimy and self-involved", and in their attempt to make listeners dance, Depeche Mode "revert to morose pop psychology and then never tell you how come they're so sad.

[18] Barry Walters of Rolling Stone identified the album as one of the "key stages in the band's evolution", citing its emphasis on "heavier hooks, cinematic arrangements and sleek sonic detail.

"[24] In Mojo, Danny Eccleston wrote that Violator found Depeche Mode merging "European and US paradigms much as U2 had done in the mid-'80s",[21] transforming them "from an arena-level electro-pop unit into a global stadium rock band".

[33] Writing for Q, John Aizlewood singled out Flood's production on the album for praise, saying that the resulting "warmth" of the music "has helped Violator to age with consummate grace.

[41] Violator reached number 17 on the Billboard 200-year-end chart of 1990,[42] and was the first Depeche Mode album to sell a million copies in the United States.

"[44] As part of Mute's 2006 reissue schedule, Violator was re-released as a hybrid Super Audio CD + DVD-Video package on 3 April 2006 that included two-channel and 5.1 surround mixes of the album.

The six B-sides to the Violator singles—"Dangerous", "Memphisto", "Sibeling", "Kaleid", "Happiest Girl", and "Sea of Sin"—also appear, albeit without the surround sound treatment.

The band were scheduled to do autographs in an LA music store, and the line became extremely long, stretching towards twenty-thousand people, and the event had to be cancelled shortly after it began due to problems keeping them in order.