Houses of the Holy originally received mixed reviews, with much criticism from the music press being directed at the off-beat nature of tracks such as "The Crunge" and "D'yer Mak'er". Gordon Fletcher from Rolling Stone called the album "one of the dullest and most confusing albums I've heard this year", believing the band had digressed from "the epitome of everything good about rock" to a watered down heavy metal act. However, the album was a commercial success and topped the UK charts and spent 39 weeks on the Billboard 200 albums chart including two weeks at number one (their longest stint since Led Zeppelin III). The album was number four on Billboard magazine's top albums of 1973 year end chart.
Houses of the Holy originally received mixed reviews with much criticism from the music press being directed at the off-beat nature of tracks such as "The Crunge" and "D'yer Mak'er". Gordon Fletcher from Rolling Stone called the album "one of the dullest and most confusing albums I've heard this year" believing the band had digressed from "the epitome of everything good about rock" to a watered down heavy metal act. However, the album was a commercial success and topped the UK charts and spent 39 weeks on the Billboard 200 albums chart including two weeks at number one (their longest stint since Led Zeppelin III). The album was number four on Billboard magazine's top albums of 1973 year end chart