The Black Mages

History

In 2000, Square Enix employees Kenichiro Fukui and Tsuyoshi Sekito formed an experimental partnership to compose music for the video game All Star Pro-Wrestling in a rock style. After the game's success, they continued composing in the same style. In 2002, Fukui and Sekito decided to arrange some compositions of Nobuo Uematsu, the primary composer for the Final Fantasy series. Uematsu, a fan of rock music, enjoyed these arrangements, and Fukui and Sekito asked him to join them in making a rock band. Uematsu initially declined due to feeling too busy with his composing duties and attempts to become a music producer with his Smile Please label, but agreed to join them in a single live performance as a keyboardist. At that performance, Uematsu felt a mix of stage fright and excitement, with crowds cheering and the audience paying full attention, and decided to join the two in forming a band; Fukui and Sekito had refused to start one without Uematsu as one of the musicians. The group said they were nervous about forming a rock band as they were all middle-aged, but decided after the performance it would not be a problem. The name 'The Black Mages' was chosen by an employee at Square Enix, Mr. Matsushita, and was decided to be in English because it would not stand out in Japanese. Square Enix owns the name, which meant the band was essentially limited to playing Final Fantasy music and original pieces rather than arranging music from other game series not owned by the company. In 2003, Uematsu decided the band should produce an album of Final Fantasy arrangements. The trio arranged, interpreted, and sequenced ten battle themes from various Final Fantasy titles, with Uematsu as producer; the album was released eponymously on February 19, 2003. To celebrate the success, Uematsu organized a concert in tribute to the album; Uematsu and Fukui served as keyboardists, while Sekito was guitarist. They needed more people to perform the arrangements live, so several other members from Square Enix joined: Keiji Kawamori on bass guitar, Michio Okamiya on guitar, and Arata Hanyuda on drums. Since then, The Black Mages released two additional albums with all six members participating.

Discography

The Black Mages is a soundtrack album that takes battle music from the Final Fantasy role-playing games and reworks it into a hard rock and progressive metal style. All ten tracks, which total 51 minutes and 29 seconds, are battle themes from the series. Critics described the sound as hard-rock, with prominent synthesizers and electric guitars. DigiCube first released it on February 19, 2003, and Square Enix re-released it on May 10, 2004. It reached number 43 on Japan's Oricon charts. Reviewers found the album addictive and powerful, but some noted that certain tracks relied too heavily on synthesizers instead of live instruments. Others felt that arrangements like "Dancing Mad" stayed too close to the originals. A critic from Square Enix Music Online praised the musicianship of the band and the arranging work of Sekito and Fukui, though he thought many songs followed a similar pattern.

The Black Mages II: The Skies Above is the follow-up album, also built from Final Fantasy music arranged in a hard rock and progressive metal hybrid. Unlike the first album, it includes non-battle tracks and features vocal performances by Kazco Hamano (credited as "KAZCO") and Tomoaki Watanabe ("Mr. Goo"). It also contains an original piece called "Blue Blast — Winning the Rainbow," created for Japanese K-1 fighter Takehiro Murahama. This second album uses real drums instead of sequenced drums, because the band had grown from its original three members, none of whom played drums. The line "Maybe I'm a Lion" in the track of the same name was spoken by Alexander O. Smith, a Square Enix translator and close friend of band member Okamiya. Universal Music Group released the album on December 22, 2004. It has eleven tracks and runs for 50 minutes and 56 seconds.

Concerts

The Black Mages never went on tour, but they did take part in several concert events, including shows to promote their three albums and appearances at orchestral concerts focused on Final Fantasy music. Their first album was promoted with a concert on April 26, 2003, at the Shibuya-AX hall in Tokyo’s Shibuya district. This overnight show included every track from the album and debuted “Matoya’s Cave,” a song that later appeared on their second album. During the band introductions, Okamiya played the Chocobo theme, and Uematsu performed the opening of Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water.” A DVD of the concert was made and given to members of Uematsu’s fan club that same year. The concert was repeated on November 3, 2003, at Kanagawa University in Kanagawa, Japan, as part of the Kanagawa Jindai Festa. Because Uematsu had graduated from that university, all members of The Black Mages wore the school’s student uniform for the performance. For their second album, the band held two promotional concerts. They played every song from that album, plus “The Decisive Battle,” “Those Who Fight Further,” and “Clash on the Big Bridge” from their first album. These shows also featured Kenji Ito, who performed piano versions of pieces from the SaGa series, and the group muZik, which played seven techno and pop-style Final Fantasy arrangements. The first concert took place at Club Citta in Kawasaki, Japan, on January 22 and 23, 2005, and the second at Namba Hatch in Osaka, Japan, on January 28, 2005. A DVD of the Kawasaki show was made and given to Uematsu fanclub members on February 1, 2006. For the release of their third album, the band performed a live concert at the Yokohama Blitz in Yokohama, Japan, on August 9, 2008. This show included all the pieces from the album except “Life ~ in memory of KEITEN ~,” and added “Maybe I’m a Lion” and “Clash on the Big Bridge.” A DVD of this performance was made and released commercially in 2009, marking the first commercial DVD release for the band.