Tristan Shone considered the record to be "the most 'live' version of Author & Punisher."[2] He has collaborated with Anselmo on Melk en Honing after he pitched to different record labels and got a positive response from Housecore Records.[3] According to him, he and Anselmo had a "very similar idea of what 'heavy' was" and made the vocals more prominent in the mix.[3][4]
Shone has described the title of the album as "really more of a sort of tip of the hat to the Dutch for reaching out and accepting of something new." He has further stated that "a bit of a medicinal or chemical component to the title, Melk en Honing, because it relates to the sense of hard work and bodily chemicals that are involved."[5]
Melk en Honing has received generally positive reviews. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album has an average score of 81 based on 4 reviews, indicating "universal acclaim".[6] J. Bennett of Revolver praised the album, describing the album's tracks as "dizzying, pulsating and pounding expositions of man's ultimate sonic collusion with machine."[8]Consequence critic Sean Barry was more mixed in his response, writing: "It's truly an opportunity missed, though, to simply listen to this record. Genuine appreciation comes only with a good deal of research into the equipment Shone has invented and employed to produce these sounds."[7]
