However, the album received stronger reviews in Europe, and critic Janet Maslin (then a music critic for "Rolling Stone" magazine) defended the album in her review. "The method here is hit-or-miss, and the results are correspondingly spotty," Maslin wrote. "The fire and brimstone are behind Dylan, this hardly means the fight has gone out of him: "Bob Dylan at Budokan" is a very contentious effort—and, for the most part, a victorious one." Fire and brimstone were to again become very much a part of Dylan's music, with the release of his album "Slow Train Coming" later in 1979.