The Listening Chamber: The Black Mages - The Black Mages (2003)

Video game music cover bands are usually made up of fans of video games, and it’s probably safe to say that they’re also composed of fans of video game music in general.  There are also orchestral covers of video game music made by groups of musicians who aren’t necessarily invested in video games at all.  But what about VGM cover bands comprised of VGM creators?  In this discussion in the Listening Chamber, we’ll look at just such a group.

The band is The Black Mages, and the album is the self-titled The Black Mages from 2003.  The Black Mages were originally comprised of three members, all of whom were video game music composers for Square Enix: Nobuo Uematsu, Kenichiro Fukui, and Tsuyoshi Sekito.  They performed instrumental rock covers of songs from the Final Fantasy series of games.  On The Black Mages, the group consisted of Uematsu and Fukui on keyboards and Sekito on guitar.

Eventually the group expanded to six members, and they released two additional albums before dissolving in 2010 after several members, including Uematsu, were no longer working for Square Enix.  The group never toured, but rather played several concerts to promote sales of their albums.  They were limited to playing covers of music from games owned by Square Enix since the company owned the band, so there were not covers of songs from any other companies released under The Black Mages name

The Black Mages - The Black Mages (2003)

The Black Mages contains 10 tracks, all of which are battle themes composed by Nobuo Uematsu that are present in games in the Final Fantasy series, and has a run-time of 51:23.

Track one is “Battle Scene” (4:19), the battle music from the original Final Fantasy.  It is much extended from the original theme, with a synthesizer intro that makes it sound like a certain song from Final Fantasy IV at first.  Personally, I find it slightly disappointing that certain parts of the original theme are not featured as prominently as others in the remix, but your mileage may vary.

Track two is “Clash on the Big Bridge” (4:16), the song with the same name from Final Fantasy V which is played during the battle with Gilgamesh, which starts off low and slow and then blasts you back with some epic metal guitar work (plus synthesizer goodness).  This is one of the most solid tracks on the album from start to finish, and is probably my personal favorite.

The third track, “Force Your Way” (3:51), is a boss battle theme from Final Fantasy VIII.  The first minute is comprised mostly of synthesizer, and then the guitar kicks in.  The song kind of rambles from here to there, with various guitar and keyboard leads taking place at different times, but it’s that way in the original as well.  After having just listened to Clash on the Big Bridge, though, this song can be a little slow and repetitive.

The fourth track is “Battle, Scene II” (3:52) from Final Fantasy II, which is the track used for major battles – including the final battle – in the original Family Computer version of the game.  This remix is somewhat modified from the Famicom version, and it’s a bit slow compared to the other songs on the album.  It’s more of a jazzy “chill” track than a blazing rock track, but it’s not that bad.

Track five, “The Decisive Battle” (4:02) from Final Fantasy VI, is the boss battle theme.  This version has been rearranged a bit from the Super Family Computer original, but once the song gets going it should be instantly recognizable to those who have heard the original before.  It’s a good, up tempo track, but it’s not as epic an arrangement as people may have expected based on the original song.

Track six is “Battle Theme” (3:21) from Final Fantasy VI, and it’s an interesting one.  This incarnation is noticeably slower than the original, and has some minimal vocal synthesizer effects thrown in as well.  I have no idea what other people think of this version, but I’d imagine that there are mixed feelings.  Feel free to comment and let everyone know what you think below.

The seventh track is “J-E-N-O-V-A” (6:08), the Jenova battle theme from Final Fantasy VII.  The first half of this version stays pretty true to the original theme, and then the second half expands on the theme while staying true to the feel of the original as well with some effects that lend an outer-space science-fiction feel to the track.

The eighth track, “Those Who Fight Further” (4:25), is the boss battle theme from Final Fantasy VII.  This version of the track stays very true to the original, with a high tempo, driving guitars, and catchy synthesizer parts.  There is an improvised guitar solo in the middle of the track, but it fits the piece and could have fit the game as well.  Fans of the music from Final Fantasy VII may better recognize this track by the name “Still More Fighting” which appeared on various media.

Track nine, “Dancing Mad” (12:04), is the final boss battle music from Final Fantasy VI.  Spoiler Alert from 1994 – In the ultimate boss fight against Kefka there are four phases to the battle, and this arrangement has them all for you.  The synthesizer work for the beginning of the third phase is a bit disappointing in that it sounds a little bland, but it’s not really bad at all.  It’s just a shame that The Black Mages couldn’t turn his character back into the sociopathic, murderous sycophant of courtier that he originally seemed to be as opposed to the foolish, foppish jester or clown that he got turned into in the post-CG iterations, but you can’t ask for the impossible.  The cover of the track is good enough, anyway.  If you think it’s a bit long, just remember that it was made that way originally.  Moving on…

The final track, track ten, is the “Fight with Seymour” (5:05) from Final Fantasy X.  This track is heavy on the synthesizer and a bit lacking in guitar, but so was the original.  This is probably the weakest track on the album, but considering that Final Fantasy X was released just two years before The Black Mages was released, it’s not surprising at all to find a Final Fantasy X track included.

The Black Mages would follow up The Black Mages in 2004 with The Black Mages II: Skies Above, featuring – you guessed it – more covers of songs from Final Fantasy games as well as an original song, and we will have a discussion about that album in the not-too-distant future.  A live recording of the first concert for The Black Mages was released on DVD exclusively to members of Uematsu’s fan club.  Even though the album is now a decade old and the band no longer exists, copies of The Black Mages can still be found for sale on retailers such as Amazon.com as well as auction sites such as Ebay.  Expect to pay more than the usual price for a CD, even an import CD, though.

The discussion for this review included a bit more of my personal opinion than I usually give, but since tracks were largely just straight covers of their original songs there would not have been very much to talk about for each track other than length and origin.  I’ll end now with my three personal favorites and three least liked songs from the album.  I liked Clash on the Big Bridge, Those Who Fight Further, and The Decisive Battle the most, and Battle Scene, Force Your Way, and Fight with Seymour the least.  If you have any comments or would like to discuss your most or least liked tracks from the album, leave a comment below and contribute to The Peer Review.  Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you again soon.