Reception
| Professional ratings | |
|---|---|
| Review scores | |
| Source | Rating |
| Allmusic | |
| Drowned In Sound | (10/10) |
| Rolling Stone | |
| Robert Christgau | A− |
Metal Box is now considered a Post-punk classic, and is very critically acclaimed. Allmusic gave it a five star rating, saying "PIL managed to avoid boundaries for the first four years of their existence, and Metal Box is undoubtedly the apex" and that it "hardly like anything of the past, present, or future". The reviewer, Andy Kellman, also compared it to the works of Captain Beefheart and Can. Drowned In Sound also gave it a perfect score, with reviewer Mark Ward stating "it tears away from Lydon’s sweaty punk roots and into the cold chambers of dub evoked by Can, the more outré electronics of Bowie’s Berlin years and the coruscating post-punk sound that guitarist Levene was in the process of pioneering" and that "if you don’t yet have a copy, you really should".
In 2003, the album was inducted into Rolling Stone's 500 Greatest Albums Of All Time list at #469, the magazine calling it "eerie, futuristic art punk with dub bass and slashing guitar". In 2002, Pitchfork Media ranked Metal Box at #19 on their "Top 100 Albums of the 1980s",. It was also, along with their debut album, included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die, with the reviewer Stevie Chick saying "the abrasive textures and powerful sounds they discovered...would influence all manner of experimental music for decades to come", while describing it as "cold dank, unforgiving, subterranean. The songs Albatross, Poptones, Careering, Chant and Radio 4 were selected as "key tracks".
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