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.

Tagged as:

video game music, progressive metal, final fantasy, japanese, metal
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The Black Mages II - The Skies Above
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Top Tracks

1	The Man With The Machine Gun (Final Fantasy VIII)	152
2	Those Who Fight Further (Final Fantasy VII)	142
3	Maybe I'm A Lion (Final Fantasy VIII)	140
4	Vamo' Alla Flamenco (Final Fantasy IX)	139
5	Blue Blast - Winning The Rainbow	136
6	Hunter's Chance (Final Fantasy IX)	131
6	The Decisive Battle (Final Fantasy VI)	131
8	The Rocking Grounds (Final Fantasy III)	126
9	Zeromus (Final Fantasy IV)	125
10	Clash on the Big Bridge (Final Fantasy V)	123
11	Force Your Way (Final Fantasy VIII)	122
12	Dancing Mad (Final Fantasy VI)	114
13	The Extreme	109
13	Battle Theme (Final Fantasy VI)	109
15	The Skies Above (Final Fantasy X)	107

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HareMettleAdlib wrote:
last week

And I want a foot long cock.

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clytie_hizashi wrote:
last week

I want a twenty minute long version of Dancing Mad with an actual, honest-to-god pipe organ. And a full choir. AND heavy metal guitars. Then, and only then, can I die happy. No more FFVII (or FFIV) shenanigans. Let's give the FFVI fans something to cheer about next.

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Silentanaki wrote:
24 days ago

Dancing mad is awesome, but too long untill the solo kicks in xD And well, Those who fight further, bring back good memories, FFVII was the best game according to me :)

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tootbrush wrote:
25 days ago

Their Dancing Mad is the best version, but it's a fact that it doesn't really offer anything over the original other than the guitar solo and real instruments. Same goes for Those Who Fight Further, but that one seems to be more popular for whatever reason. Must be the FFVII factor. :P

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Viking-Runar wrote:
26 days ago

How can dancing mad not be in the top charts!!!! D:

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cybrauralninjuh wrote:
26 days ago

They are the black wizards.

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Wesku88 wrote:
last month

Awesome songs from the best game-series ever!

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Astrocup wrote:
last month

Vamo' Alla Flamenco. Hell yeah.

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sawworm wrote:
last month

Nah, Matoya's Cave sooo kvlt for me.

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tyrique12 wrote:
last month

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:
last month

Dancing Mad <3

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Mork_Laerer wrote:
last month

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

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belphegoria wrote:
October 2009

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

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dRpHUL wrote:
October 2009

Dancing Mad <3

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MinaseTaki wrote:
October 2009

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:
October 2009

Dancing Mad is so fucking epic

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DrewniaQ wrote:
October 2009

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

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sawworm wrote:
October 2009

Awsomeness, when new album?

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ArkAwn wrote:
October 2009

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:
October 2009

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

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