500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time. In the 2004 Focus reissue liner notes, Ula Gehret - music journalist, owner of Clandestine Music, and Century Media Europe manager wrote:"… on the Focus album musically, there isn’t a single track where you can cite a main influence or reference point of blatant plagiarism, unlike nearly every single debut album in your record collection, perhaps with the scant exception of a few truly groundbreaking bands such as Black Sabbath or Frank Zappa." In the foreword from the Focus bass transcription book, Jeff Wagner, the author of Mean Deviation: Four Decades of Progressive Heavy Metal, and co-host of the podcast Radical Research – Adventures in Exceptional Musick wrote:"Despite it feeling completely of its time in 1993, if you listen to Focus now, it’s difficult to tell which era it was recorded in. It has no hallmarks of any particular time, drawing, as it does, from things going all the way back to jazz’s ‘60s renaissance, while feeling like music being beamed to Earth by some distant future race. At whatever present point you’re in, it holds up there too." In 2009, Chris Dick of Decibel Magazine had praises for Focus:"Focus is, for all intents and purposes, superlative, and therefore the Hall of Fame rolls out the magic red carpet to induct the most significant progressive death metal (by association) record of all time."On the 20th anniversary of the album in 2013, the BazillionPoints.com blog presented an extract of Jeff Wagner's book Mean Deviation: Four Decades of Progressive Metal that gave Focus the recognition it deserved:"Even though it was met with confusion and even some good old spite upon release, Cynic's Focus has aged extremely well. There's no denying its impact over the past two decades. Now that progressive music of various kinds is more acceptable in the metal universe than it was in 1993, Focus takes its place alongside a rarified set of albums that continue to sell and find new generations of fans. Right up there with (METALLICA’s) …And Justice For All, (Death’s) Human, (Dream Theater's) Images And Words, and other essential pieces of brain metal."In 2019, Focus was featured in Issue #173 of OffYourRadar.com:"...This is unlike anything you’ve ever heard. Referred to as “Progressive Metal” because it progresses beyond simple catchy distorted guitar riffs and chugga-chugga aggression. This music ventures into the complex arrangements usually reserved for snooty experimental