The Black Mages

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Japan (2002 – present)

THE BLACK MAGES are a Japanese progressive rock / progressive metal band. They formed in 2002 when final fantasy composer Nobuo Uematsu (植松伸夫) (keyboards, compo) decided, having heard and enjoyed rock arrangements of some of his Final Fantasy themes by 福井健一郎 (on keyboards and guitar, Kenichiro Fukui) and 関戸剛 (on lead guitar, Tsuyoshi Sekito), to form a band to showcase these arrangements. The other members include 河盛慶次 (on bass, Keiji Kawamori), 羽入田新 (on drums, Arata Hanyuuda), and 岡宮道生 (on guitar, Michio Okamiya).

The band revised some of Uematsu’s most popular fighting themes from the games of the Final Fantasy line in order to publish them in newly-arranged shape on the album The Black Mages: Battle Music of Final Fantasy. The Black Mages’ overall style is a complex hybrid of progressive rock and neo-classical power metal. The songs on the first album are all instrumental and all arrangements of battle themes. The Black Mages’ second album, entitled The Skies Above, was released in Japan on December 22, 2004. This album features guest vocalists on two tracks and features arrangements of a few tracks that were not originally battle themes, but the majority of tracks are still instrumental arrangements of battle themes.

The Black Mages performed live at Shibuya-AX, April 26-27, 2003. The performance was released on DVD exclusively to fanclub members residing in Japan. The performance marked the debut of the later released “Matoya’s Cave” and featured additional solos within songs.

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video game music, progressive metal, final fantasy, japanese, metal
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Top Tracks

1	Vamo' Alla Flamenco (Final Fantasy IX)	198
2	The Man With The Machine Gun (Final Fantasy VIII)	191
3	Blue Blast - Winning The Rainbow	186
4	Maybe I'm A Lion (Final Fantasy VIII)	180
5	Those Who Fight Further (Final Fantasy VII)	160
6	Opening - Bombing Mission	157
7	Hunter's Chance (Final Fantasy IX)	154
8	The Skies Above (Final Fantasy X)	153
9	The Rocking Grounds (Final Fantasy III)	151
10	Force Your Way (Final Fantasy VIII)	149
11	Zeromus (Final Fantasy IV)	146
12	Otherworld (Final Fantasy X)	144
12	Matoya's Cave (Final Fantasy I)	144
14	Clash on the Big Bridge (Final Fantasy V)	142
15	Battle Scene (Final Fantasy I)	141

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Wesku88 wrote:
Friday evening

Awesome songs from the best game-series ever!

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Astrocup wrote:
last week

Vamo' Alla Flamenco. Hell yeah.

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sawworm wrote:
last week

Nah, Matoya's Cave sooo kvlt for me.

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tyrique12 wrote:
12 days ago

Dancing Mad has the greatest guitar solo of all time. The rest of the song is pretty meh, though. :\ <-- really? i think the whole song is amazing

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LovelyShonen wrote:
15 days ago

Dancing Mad <3

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Mork_Laerer wrote:
22 days ago

Oh my god. A genious band with a genious member.

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belphegoria wrote:
last month

Nobuo Uematsu is genious. He should've been the first dude I put on my lastfm.

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dRpHUL wrote:
last month

Dancing Mad <3

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MinaseTaki wrote:
last month

Dancing Mad has the greatest guitar solo of all time. The rest of the song is pretty meh, though. :\

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sepultura95 wrote:
last month

Dancing Mad is so fucking epic

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DrewniaQ wrote:
last month

http://www.lastfm.pl/group/The+Cult+of+Kefka Feel free to join ;)

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sawworm wrote:
last month

Awsomeness, when new album?

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ArkAwn wrote:
last month

Yasunori Mitsuda got an ucler and had to dip at the last minute or something like that, so yeah nobua had to do a few tracks

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kainhighwind4 wrote:
last month

They should do Prince Edward's harp song from ffiv.

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LDirtyBastard wrote:
September 2009

The Skies Above -> Epic.

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tootbrush wrote:
September 2009

No way. Zanarkand just doesn't work for me anymore without mr.goo. :P And Uematsu composed Tyran Castle, as well as several other tracks for CT (like Silent Light and Sealed Door).

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xEIRIKRx wrote:
September 2009

X's lyrical music is far superior to The Black Mage's versions. But I can realy get into TBM's Dancing Mad

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Emeralda wrote:
September 2009

Yasunori Mitsuda did Tyran Castle as well as all of the Chrono Trigger OST except for a few tracks I thought? It WOULD be awesome though

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Spike2701 wrote:
September 2009

I didn't like Maybe I'm a Lion very much in FF8, but their version is one of my favorite songs of theirs ---> It's pure awesomeness.

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pullthetrigga wrote:
September 2009

Neo Exdeath, Zermous, Hunter's Chance, Those Who Fight Further and Vamo' alla Flamenco are my favs :D

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