The spiritual successor to The Neverhood brought back the claymation and the musical weirdness in equal measure. Armikrog was made by Pencil Test Studios, founded by Doug TenNapel and featuring Terry Scott Taylor returning on soundtrack duties, the same composer who made The Neverhood's music so memorably bizarre.
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"Theme Armikrog" sets the tone with that signature blend of jaunty, off-kilter instrumentation that sounds like a carnival in another dimension. "Hot and Beefed (The Zipkicker)" and "Scuttle Bugaboo" keep things playfully strange.
"The Hallowed Halls of Heralded Heroes" goes grand in the most absurd way possible, while "Accordion, Accordingly" is exactly the kind of track title you'd expect from a game made of clay and pure creative chaos. "Nocturne In Blue" pulls back into something genuinely atmospheric, and "Mother Is Near" carries an eerie tenderness.
"Tun Gun Sewernade" is a serenade in a sewer and somehow it works beautifully. The bonus tracks are a treat. "The Officially Rejected Unofficial Armikrog Theme" is the kind of self-aware humor the team thrived on, and "The Squarely Beast Gets All Mixed Up" remixes one of the album's standouts into something even more unhinged.
If you loved what Terry Scott Taylor did with The Neverhood, this is that same mad genius energy pointed at a new universe.