Relationship of Command

Professional ratings

Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	77/100[9]
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic	[8]
Entertainment Weekly	A[10]
The Guardian	[11]
Melody Maker	[12]
NME	9/10[13]
Pitchfork	6.1/10 (2004)[14] 8.3/10 (2013)[15]
Q	[16]
Rolling Stone	[17]
Uncut	[18]
The Village Voice	A−[19]

The album initially received generally positive reviews, with Metacritic giving the album an aggregate score of 77.[9] The album is now seen as one of the most influential rock albums of the decade, with it being ranked 47th in the 50 Greatest Albums of the 21st century in Kerrang!, number 83 on Spin magazine's 100 Greatest Albums 1985–2005,[20] 6th in State magazine's 100 albums of the decade,[21] 3rd in JustPressPlay's Top 100 Albums of the 2000s,[22] 52nd in Decibel magazine's Greatest 100 albums of the decade,[23] 117th in Uncut magazine's 150 Albums of the decade,[24] as well as being ranked at number 90 on MTV2's greatest albums ever list.[25] A retrospective BBC music review hailed the significance of Relationship of Command's uniqueness, calling the album "mesmerising" and a "statement of grand intent that could never be followed."[26]

In 2005, the album was ranked number 423 in Rock Hard magazine's book of The 500 Greatest Rock & Metal Albums of All Time.[27] The album is also seen as an influential guitar album, being ranked number 94 in a Guitar World reader's poll of the 100 greatest guitar albums of all time. This list appeared in the October 2006 issue of Guitar World.[28]

Following the release of the album, At the Drive-In gained brief mainstream critical and commercial success, with Relationship of Command appearing in end-of-year lists of the best albums of 2000 by publications such as the Los Angeles Times and Rolling Stone, as well as becoming their first album to reach the Billboard 200. The band also made appearances on shows such as Late Night with Conan O'Brien and the Late Show with David Letterman. However, despite this success, the band went on an indefinite hiatus in 2001, with the members splitting to form The Mars Volta and Sparta.

In an interview with Alternative Press in September 2010 (in an article praising the album 10 years later) when asked "What's your least favorite thing about the album?" Rodriguez replied: "In a heartbeat I could tell you, one of my only regrets out of everything I've ever done is the way that record was mixed. People think that was a raw and energetic record, but what they're hearing is nothing compared to what it truly was before it was glossed over and sent through the mixing mill that was Andy Wallace, who is a wonderful person and a very talented mixing engineer and has done great albums – I'm not trying to offend him....and I understand he had the pressure of the label and all the people who had dreams of it being this grandiose thing, and being played on the radio, which it was, (but) that record is ruined by the mix. I just find it the most passive, plastic....It's the one record I still to this day cannot listen to."[7] The album was included in Rock Sound's 101 Modern Classics list at number 4.[29] The album was ranked at number 177 on Spin's "The 300 Best Albums of the Past 30 Years (1985–2014)" list.[30] In 2019, the album was ranked 42nd on The Guardian's 100 Best Albums of the 21st Century list.[31]