"...For fans of the esoteric and occasionally inscrutable, “Only Theatre of Pain” is a valuable resource.

From start to finish, the album is a journey. Perhaps even a horror, with the lurid and the beautiful posed side-by-side. Rozz Williams does not tell the listener what to think, but rather creates a vivid picture to do so for him.

Through the progression of abstract concepts, Williams tells a convoluted tale of perversion and devotion and subversion.

Every time I listen to the album, I notice something different. The album is so multitudinous, both in its lyrical construction and experimental sound design, that there seems to always be something new to notice."

 - J., wknc.org