Did you listen to the song I listed for Halo 4's tracks? They will change your opinion of Neil completely.

I'm yet to hear an arbitrary definition of what makes a piece of music "Halo'y". You say that Halo 2 is your favourite OST, the variety of music in that game ranges from the chanting monks to ridiculous things like Breaking Benjamin - and that shit is [i]definitely[/i] a break-away from the sound of the game regardless. And what about ODST? There's not even a hint of the "Halo sound" in it, it's a completely new soundtrack to fit a different atmosphere and establish a vastly different tone to the space opera of Halo CE-3. Is that not "Halo'y" then? Halo is a series that doesn't constrict itself to a single theme in music, it covers a wide range of things like the typical kind of human military drum-roll to alien ambiences. Davidge approached Halo 4 with the same mindset that Marty had with ODST - make something new, something different, something that is going to reinforce the themes and atmosphere of the game. This is accomplished spot-on in both of those games, and by no means does this make them "un-Halo", it is simply [i]expanding[/i] Halo's musical and thematic range.