Screaming electric guitar rips over rapid-fire drums on the Black Wind arrange version and you know Psikyo means business. Masaki Izutani and Kensuke Satoh composed Strikers 1999 with a relentless energy that matches the bullet curtains on screen.
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Interval of a huge gorge brings this driving rock foundation for the American stage, while Sea of Battle shifts into something more structured and intense for the Japan stage. A hysteric woman goes over the sun is maybe the wildest boss track title ever and the music lives up to it, all frantic tempo shifts and aggressive leads.
The space stage track, None of the Phenomena of the Universe, goes appropriately cosmic. That ranking theme carries a strange melancholy after all the chaos. If you play shmups for the adrenaline and never checked Psikyo's late-era work, this one rips.