possession of illegal substances in Richmond, Virginia. Erik Larson of Alabama Thunderpussy, who were also performing that day, was able to assist the group in getting the police to drop the charges. The band's American label, The Music Cartel, responded to the event, stating that "with a band like Electric Wizard something like this happening wasn't very far off the mark. I just hope nothing worse happens before the tour is completed." Bagshaw reflected on their American tour as like serving in the Vietnam War, saying that it "strengthened their armor". Greening said that the tour "seemed like a good laugh" but that the group was "young at the time [...] at times it was soul destroying." Oborn commented more positively on it, expressing his excitement about touring the United States and "staying at great hotels, being treated like kings", while noting that the group had still argued a lot while on tour. Reception From contemporary reviews, CMJ New Music Monthly declared the album to be "for true fans of doom metal, people who don't think Iron Man" rip-off' every time they hear detuned chromatic guitar riffs'. Palmerston of Exclaim! declared it "their best effort yet" and "what might be the most over-the-top, loudest doom album ever made", proclaiming that "whether the band realizes it or not, they have raised the bar by which fuzz/stoner/doom music will be judged." Kot declared the group "one of England's more single-minded bands", finding Oborn's vocals "riotously over-the-top" and the group's interplay "in a word: H-E-A-V-Y." George Smith of the Village Voice declared that the album was "the doom metal equivalent of the Reinheitsgebot, the German pure-beer standard: bitter and sulfuric to the point of unpalatability, but against which everything else seems watery." At the end of the year, DeRogatis commented on the album, saying "You're forgiven for saying that all of the above sounds a little bit Spinal Tap [...] But that doesn't negate the fact that Electric Wizard is one of the most intense rock bands pounding the boards anywhere in this new millennium". AllMusic's Ed Rivadavia said that with Dopethrone, the group had "raised the bar for doom metal achievement in the new millennium – good luck to the competition." In a retrospective review, Decibel placed the album on their list of the "Top 20 Stoner Rock Albums of All Time" in September 2007. The album placed second on their list,