A full orchestra tears into the Super Metroid theme and suddenly Zebes sounds like a sci-fi film score from 1994. Kenji Yamamoto and Minako Hamano's compositions get the arrange album treatment here, with Yoshiyuki and Masumi Ito handling arrangements that let you hear what the SNES was straining to express.
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The "Space Pirates Appear" arrange version is legitimately intense, all sharp brass and rolling percussion. Then the disc shifts to original NES Metroid tracks from Hirokazu Tanaka, raw and buzzing. Hearing Brinstar go from 8-bit pulse waves to the SNES Plant Overgrowth version on the same album really shows you the evolution.
38 tracks covering both games back to back. If you want to hear where Metroid's sound identity was forged, this is the document.