The Black Mages: Final Fantasy [Import]

the black mages: final fantasy [import]

Track Listings

1. Battle Scene (Final Fantasy I)

2. Clash On The Big Bridge (Final Fantasy V)

3. Force Your Way (Final Fantasy Viii)

4. Battle, Scene Ii (Final Fantasy Ii)

5. Decisive Battle (Final Fantasy Vi)

6. Battle Theme (Final Fantasy Vi)

7. J-E-N-O-V-A (Final Fantasy Vii)

8. Those Who Fight Further (Final Fantasy Vii)

9. Dancing Mad (Final Fantasy Vi)

10. Fight With Seymour (Final Fantasy X)

Editorial Reviews
Product Description
Japanese game soundtrack featuring Battle Music from Final Fantasies I-X. The tracks were all arranged hard-rock style by Nobuo Uematsu himself. 2003.

The Black Mages: Final Fantasy,Game Music,Square Soft,Soundtracks,Video Game Soundtrack

The Black Mages: Final Fantasy [Import]

The Black Mages: Battle Music of Final Fantasy

Average customer rating:

WARNING
The Black Mages
Who would've known that Black Mages like rock music?
Uematsu Having a little fun
Great first effort from a talented group; must-have for Final Fantasy fans

The Black Mages: Battle Music of Final Fantasy
Nobuo Uematsu
Manufacturer: Japanese Import
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B000084TG1
Release Date: 2003-04-08

Tracks:

Battle Scene
Clash On The Big Bidge
Force Your Way
Battle, Scene II
The Decisive Battle
Battle Theme
J-E-N-O-V-A
Those Who Fight Further
Dancing Mad
Fight With Seymour

Album Description

Japanese game soundtrack featuring Battle Music of Final Fantasy. The tracks were all arranged hard-rock style by Nobuo Uematsu himself. 2003.

Customer Reviews:

WARNING.......2006-08-18

Be careful ! Do not buy illegal copies from Asia ! always verify that the label is Square or Sony or Universal or anything you know. Label Japanese import are illegal copies. Always wonder when there are a low price and a high price. Most of the time he higher price is the legal copy !
Please don't kill the music you love !

The Black Mages.......2006-03-04

Always nobuo uematsu deals death with his covers with "the black mages"

the sheer wall of sound hitting you when you first listen to "Those Who Fight Further" (otherwise known in the origonal soundtrack as "still more fighting")

Also, although the drum machine in "J-E-N-O-V-A" does leave a lot to be desired, the band is truly give an amazing amount of skill.

This album, even if you aren't into progressive metal, will be loved by FF fans all over the world, and truly this album without a doubt will give the final fantasy music that truly real feel (rather than a midi)

Who would've known that Black Mages like rock music? .......2006-03-03

Words cannot describe how ecstatic I was to hear that Uematsu was going to release an arrange album of various Final Fantasy battle themes redone in heavy metal. "Official" metal or rock arrange albums have an incredible track record. Konami's "Battle Perfect Selection" series was the first crusade into metal arrangement of video game music. Since those five CDs were released in 1993-1995, only F-Zero X Guitar Arrange has been nearly as good. The Black Mages puts an end to the drought.

Almost every song has a synth lead, with guitar playing rhythm in the background, eventually emerging to do a solo or to switch places with the synth. "Battle Scene I" is a good example of this. The guitar is not used ineffectively, however. At about 3'09", the guitar re-enters after a short interlude, and kicks back into the chorus, with the guitar joining the bass in the background rumblings, adding a whole new dimension to the song. Brilliant.

As you may have noticed, I said "almost" every song was synth led. "Force Your Way" is a prime example of an exception. There is a short, synthy opening, but after that two guitars (as opposed to the one featured in most other songs) take over. From 1'25" to about 2'25" there is nothing but chaos. Guitar solo, synth solo, guitar solo. It's truly crazy. After that, the song enters a slower part, and eventually ends where it began.

The last song I should mention is "Dancing Mad", a 12 minute epic. A lot of people have felt disappointed with this arrangement. Some say the synth sample quality is too low, others complain that the guitar barely plays for five minutes. While both points are true, I still love this song. It's easily the best arrangement I've heard of the theme. It's a lot heavier than the original, and although it's not so guitar heavy, it still sounds distinctly rock-ish.

The rest of the album is just as good as the songs mentioned above. Tracks like "Those Who Fight Further" ("Still More Fighting") were just itching to have a real guitar thrown into the mix, while others will have you saying, "Wow, I never imagined the song could sound like this." On another note, this CD is very loud. If you keep your speakers set at a certain loudness all the time, I'm pretty sure you'll have to turn them down. It's easily the loudest CD I own.

In whole, this album is nothing short of brilliant. A fair warning: It is not going to be everyones cup of tea. However, it's a soundtrack that every Final Fantasy fan who even mildly likes rock music should have

Uematsu Having a little fun.......2005-08-08

Nobuo is allowed to take a few creative liberties in his own cover band as keyboardist. He wrote the music to start with and this is a rock band that does covers of the originals. Expects some edgier versions of the battle theme from FF7 and a few other favorites. I would recommend these works just for the sake of seeing how versatile this composer really is.

Great first effort from a talented group; must-have for Final Fantasy fans.......2005-08-02

Generally excellent album, but more appealing to Final Fantasy fans than to the general public. A bit inconsistent in style. Some folks criticize the overuse of synthesizers in this album, but keep in mind that this is a VIDEO GAME MUSIC album, and it's going to be reminiscent of that. That's kind of the whole point.

In general, they stayed pretty faithful to the original tunes and added some crunchy guitar, organ and synth solos. The expertly handled (albeit synthesized!) drumming adds quite a bit (especially on tracks 1 and 8) and fans of FF VI will get a big kick out of this album, which is heavy on tracks from said game. Anyway, here's my opinions on the tracks. Hopefully this won't be too lengthy for general consumption.

Track 1: Battle Theme (FF I)
----------------------------
Interesting drums and wah-wah guitar; synth melody is haunting. Otherwise, nothing really special.

Track 2: Clash on the Big Bridge (FF V)
---------------------------------------
Awesome track. Excellent crunchy vintage-Van-Halen-style guitar and keyboards with some really soaring and anthemic dual-guitar melodies. Evolves into some real nifty keyboard work in the middle.

Track 3: Force Your Way (FF VIII)
---------------------------------
Virtuosic guitar, again reminiscent of early Van-Halen. Keyboards are probably programmed, and not played; adds nice atmosphere. Very anthemic. If you've played FF VIII, this will bring you right back. Otherwise probably not all that remarkable.

Track 4: Battle, Scene II (FF II)
---------------------------------
Quirky tune with crunchy guitar, soaring keyboard work. Unfortunately it kind of devolves into muzak in the middle briefly, but it's pleasant enough.

Track 5: The Decisive Battle (FF VI)
------------------------------------
Very similar to Track 2 with a really interesting musical theme. More dual guitars and exquisitely compressed synth sounds and funky bass. Possibly the best track on the disc.

Track 6: Battle Theme (FF VI)
-----------------------------
More anthemic guitar. Very fun 80's era "Yes" style synth hits (think "Owner of a Lonely Heart") in this one. Amusing "video-gamey" programmed synth work in the background. Otherwise unremarkable.

Track 7: J-E-N-O-V-A (FF VII)
-----------------------------
A lot of people seem to really like this one. It's a bit too techno for my taste. Heavy synth and a disco beat. Has a really cool theme in the middle of it that gets disrupted suddenly for some reason for a second or two when the rest of the band cuts out leaving a solo synth. Still a lot of fun, and FF VII fans especially will get a kick out of it.

Track 8: Those Who Fight Further (FF VII)
-----------------------------------------
Great thrashing drum work on this one. Pretty good organ work. (Think mid-70's rock with heavy Hammond organ, then add in some video-game style synth.) Otherwise not particularly interesting.

Track 9: Dancing Mad (FF VI)
----------------------------
Convincingly transformed into a mid-70's progressive rock piece. Pretentious as all hell, but if you like that sort of thing, you'll dig this number as well. Not really changed that much from the original sound version, actually.

Track 10: Fight with Seymour (FF X)
-----------------------------------
Techno J-Pop-ish stuff. Not really my thing, and doesn't quite fit with the rest of the album. Really sounds like something straight from a video game, which kind of departs from the rest of the album which sounds more like rock that's reminiscent of a video game.

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