There's something genuinely unsettling about these early SMT compositions that no amount of modern production has managed to replicate. Tsukasa Masuko's work across the first few Shin Megami Tensei games lives in this anxious, lo-fi space where the Cathedral of Shadows theme sounds like it's humming from inside a broken television.
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The Fiend battle music is pure dread fuel. Then you hit the if... tracks and Karukozaka High School Song is sitting there being weirdly upbeat about a school full of demons. The contrast is everything. The Chaos and Law alignment themes still set this mood that most RPG soundtracks don't even attempt.
Essential listening if you want to understand where Atlus's sound DNA started.