The AllMusic review by François Couture awarded the album 3 stars stating "Pain Killer started out in 1991 as an incredibly brutal and exhilarating avant-core trio. It gradually turned into a free-dub unit with much less ideas per minute... As it is, it will appeal to fans of the Execution Ground era of the trio – and even then it makes an interesting addition but is by no means an essential item."[2]
