"Reign in Blood" got good reviews from many music magazines. Steve Huey, a music critic from AllMusic, wrote that the album was a "classic". He also said that the album helped make death metal. Clay Jarvis from "Stylus Magazine" said that it was "the greatest metal album of all time". "Kerrang!" said it was the "heaviest album of all time". The magazine put "Reign in Blood" on a list of the 100 best heavy metal albums. In 2006, "Metal Hammer" said it was the "best metal album of the last 20 years". In 2017, "Rolling Stone" ranked the album number 6 on a list of the "100 Greatest Metal Albums of All Time".