Picture in a Dream remained that the group had congruently dedicated themselves to the sound of the 1970s. At the same time, the album had, "of course, nothing new to offer at all", but was "full of charm and joy of playing". Steven Reid of Sea of Tranquility, meanwhile, saw the album as evidence of the band's ongoing qualitative improvement. All the tracks proved to be extremely skilfully recorded and provided with powerful harmonic vocals. Peter Hackett of Musicwaves, however, criticised these. He said that the many voices were not balanced and thus stifled the music, which had some excellent compositions. Victim of Your Father's Agony also features the familiarity of the great and classic interpreters of progressive rock, but Arabs in Aspic take up the style and interpret it "new and fresh" in "their very own way." Jürgen Meurer of Betreutes Proggen also praised the album's reliably "good-humoured 70s-inspired prog" and only criticised the playing time of 38 minutes. Contrary to speculations that the album was in constant play throughout, Henry Schneider of Exposé wrote that the album was "not a huge step ahead," yet it was "obvious that the band is evolving and maturing." The seventh album of the band Syndenes Magi was praised by Thoralf Koß for Musikreviews.de as a "retro-progressive masterpiece from Norway, atmospherically moving between KING CRIMSON and PINK FLOYD". As a "musical nostalgia trip to the 70s that always evokes memories of big names from back then", and as a release "one of the most fascinating [LPs] of 2017" as well as a "consistently [... ] musical highlight" the reviewers of the webzines Babyblaue Seiten described the album. In addition to the toughness of the playing, which stood out from the models, the Norwegian vocals were highlighted, which gave the album its own touch. On Magic and Madness, Andreas Schiffmann succeeded in condensing "everything that has always distinguished them into a comparatively 'thick' core". Thus, Arabs in Aspic "transfers the early phase of Genesis into the present time", which is why he declared the album "an abrasion-proof long-runner with addictive potential and a contender for the title 'Prog Record of the Year'". Other reviews were also full of praise, saying that the album was a "firework of ingenious ideas, of great songs performed with unbeatable nonchalance". Some criticisms were made, such as by Frank Jäger of Powermetal.de, about the production being too uniform. He