Dive Verdict: 3 of 5 Stars
In video game history, few series have music as good as Nintendo’s Metroid. From the early chirps and pings to heady synths and guitar, the tunes in these games creep along, underpinning the strung out isolation at the heart of bounty hunter Samus Aran’s interstellar journeys.
With Varia Suite, a group of hard rockers have gathered to pay tribute to the exemplary soundtracks.
By all counts Metroid Metal is far more successful than it should be. It completely changes instrumentation without losing the games’ haunting aesthetic. And in doing so it creates a series of good, though never great, metal instrumentals.
Opener “Prelude” takes a soaring melody from “Super Metroid” and amps it up with stomping chords and a riff that goes for miles. But what makes it is the subtle intro. As the band steadily builds into a pounding force, a guitar nails the game’s eerie signature synth line, creating powerful tension.
Most of the older songs are similarly loud. “Kraid,” the theme for a series-long villain, rockets around a corkscrew riff in a quick romp.
Hearing these nostalgia-enducing melodies shocked into high-voltage should certainly prove fun for Metroid fans, but they’re a touch monotonous on a musical level.
The two songs from “Metroid Prime” display more instrumental dexterity. “Phendrana Drifts,” the aural compliment to a cold tundra, places a cleanly reverbed guitar over harder rock to funnel lonely cold into crushing metal muscle.
So while Nintendo-philes will find plenty of jollies here, metal heads may find themselves wishing for a more satisfying set of jams.
