Forbidden was panned by critics upon its release.
AllMusic's Bradley Torreano gave the album only one and a half stars, remarking that "with boring songs, awful production, and uninspired performances, this is easily avoidable for all but the most enthusiastic fan". He also stated that he considered it a "sad state of affairs" given the band's long history. Band members have since spoken about their mixed opinions of the album. Vocalist Tony Martin made known his feelings in an interview in July 2011, during which he stated: "Well,
Forbidden is... I want to say 'crap', but it's actually not". He added that he thought the songs worked in rehearsals, but other factors, such as rumours of a reunion of the original Black Sabbath line-up and the record company wanting to "take [the album] and see what Ice-T wanted to do", gave the album a "distinct ill feeling". Martin also maintained that he never believed a "
Run-D.M.C. type"/"Rap Sabbath" album would work.
Rob Zombie gave some lighter praise at the launch, stating "There is one easy way to figure out the lasting power of Black Sabbath. There's always certain bands that get a great reaction and Black Sabbath is always one of them." Guitarist
Tony Iommi has admitted to Sabbath fanzine
Southern Cross that he was "not happy" with
Forbidden. He elaborated by saying, "We brought in Ernie C to do production, which was a bit difficult really, because I had to leave him to it… One of the problems was we weren't all there at the same time, when we were writing it. Cozy and Neil were still contracted to do other stuff, so it ended up with just Tony Martin,
Geoff Nicholls and myself just jamming around and putting ideas down. It all came together very quickly and we didn't have time to reflect: make sure it was the right songs and the right way of doing it." Iommi reiterated his dissatisfaction with the album to the
Birmingham Mail newspaper. In 2019, Ernie C defended his production in
Forbidden, saying it was a "cool and fun experience." It was his goal to "dry" the band's sound up a little bit and make it "more personal," meaning to amplify the music so it did not sound like "you're playing in a tunnel." He recalled that Iommi approached both him and Ice-T in England to record their new album after listening to a demo of "War Pigs" that Body Count had made. It was also Ernie's idea to get Ice-T to rap in "The Illusion of Power." ==Remix==