Kevin M. Williams of the "Chicago Sun-Times" gave the album an "essential" rating, and said, "KMFDM has some major mojo working with "Xtort"".Stephen Thomas Erlewine of AllMusic was less enthusiastic, saying, "it would be nice to hear [KMFDM] branch out and start to experiment a little bit more", and commenting that while "Xtort" did not sound much different from previous releases, "KMFDM sounds as good as they ever have, and several tracks rank among their best."