The Metroid series’ futuristic tales starring galactic bounty hunter Samus Aran received a musical makeover when a new metal album released earlier today.
North Carolina-based progressive metal guitarist Ro Panuganti recorded “The Dark Hunter (Music from the Metroid Series)” in tribute to his love of the Nintendo franchise. Video game music label Materia Collective published the album, along with Panuganti’s “The Wild (Music from The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild). Over the album’s six renditions, Panuganti covers themes from the popular Super Metroid and Metroid Prime installments.
“Creating ‘The Dark Hunter’ was fulfilling my long-running dream of focusing on one theme, one sound and one game series and making a solid album,” he said in a press release. “The gripping atmosphere, exciting turns and twists, and of course the soundtrack from Super Metroid gave me chills.”
The guitarist is no stranger to covering video game music, as he has previously covered series such as DOOM, Final Fantasy, Persona, and The Legend of Zelda for his YouTube channel. Panuganti also released a music video for the song “Ridley,” a take on the series’ theme for the dragon-like villain by the same name.
Other moments from the series like Metroid Prime‘s title screen, Samus’ journey through the jungles of Brinstar and Kraid’s lair are showcased throughout the album. The album clocks in over 28 minutes long, with the last track, “Red Soil,” being the longest at eight and a half minutes.
Despite his classical background, Panuganti blends traditional and progressive metal licks with fusion influences in his work. In addition to playing guitar, he also provides the bass, vocals, MIDI programming and audio engineering. Panuganti said artists such as Alice in Chains, Pantera, Periphery and TesseracT are the main influences on the album’s sound.
Below is the full track listing:
- “The Dark Hunter”
- “Kraid”
- “Prime”
- “Jungle”
- “Ridley”
- “Red Soil”
The album is available through Panuganti’s Bandcamp page along with his previous Zelda record.