upon its release, "the satanist" received universal acclaim reviews from music critics. at metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from critics, the album received an average score of 92, which indicates "universal acclaim", based on 10 reviews. joe divita of loudwire noted that the album "sees the band shed away that skin as they simultaneously get back to some of their blackened roots while exploring new areas with ... dynamic songwriting". the album would claim the top spot on loudwire's list of the best metal albums of 2014, with loudwire stating that "the disc is a masterpiece from beginning to end, with absolutely no filler to be skipped over".