The whole Metroid series has had incredible music, from the booming Crateria theme in Super Metroid to the chant-techno of the Metroid Prime title screen. But even if Super Metroid is the height of the series in terms of gameplay (it totally is), the mind-blowingly excellent Metroid music peaked in 1986 with Hirokazu "Hip" Tanaka's soundtrack.Even on extremely simple sound hardware, the Metroid soundtrack holds up extremely well today. The title music is atmospheric and gloomy; the main Brinstar theme evokes an adventurous feeling. Tanaka's use of the NES sound chip's sounds as instruments exceeds the normal beepiness, and seems to be the most listenable NES soundtrack even to people who hate 8-bit music (speculating here, because we love chiptunes.) It's no surprise that the melodies from Metroid tunes found their way into Prime.
Stemage's Metroid Metal is a fantastic interpretation of the Metroid soundtrack (and now Super Metroid) done with blazing guitars. It's an amazingly rocking tribute to Tanaka's masterpiece, and definitely merits a listen. But for our money, the best way to rock out to Metroid tunes is to download an NSF player and listen to the real thing, either ripped from the NES cartridge or the Famicom Disk System. Because of the FDS's superior sound hardware, that version actually sounds better.
