It makes me wonder if all of this originated from the bone player "Brother Bones and his Shadows." He did the percussion for the Harlem Globetrotters theme so music is just amazing!
You can feel the frustration and desperation in this song. Thanatos conquered kings only for 3 kids to snatch it away. The Dark lich isn't a show of power but the debt he 's not willing to pay.
It’s psychedelic, and peppered with the feeling you’re fighting something unimaginably foul, evil and ancient. The thrum from 0:55 scared me as a little kid.
This is superior to the remaster because: The ringing of the bells are consistent with the ruins, There are only drums and gongs and objects that could be played or thought of as strings which are also percussion when used in a certain way, and finally, the chanting. The chanting is the best part of the song and it sounds like skeleton stuff. It's been a long time and hard pressed to find anything aside from warcraft 3 that understands the skeleton bones stuff.
If there ever was a Ranking for "The Composer didn't had to go THIS Hard for the Penultimate Boss, but we're all Glad that he/she did" this right here would be in the all Time Top 3.
Hiroki Kikuta is heavily influenced by Indonesian gamelan. He wasn't sure of what songs would sound like and make his own samples so he would know how it would sound. Ceremony and Oracle are as close to gamelan as you can get on the SNES.
"When you can't find a toilet and you really need to go" - some commenter from an older upload that doesn't exist anymore I'd like to imagine that this is the theme that plays during that scenario.