[Album Review] The Black Mages - The Black Mages III: Darkness And Starlight (2008)

Current members:
Tsuyoshi Sekito - guitar
Michio Okamiya - guitar
Nobuo Uematsu - organ
Kenichiro Fukui - keyboard
Keiji Kawamori - bass
Arata Hanyuda - drums

Track Listing:
01 - Opening ~ Bombing Mission 4:39
02 - Neo EXDEATH 4:39
03 - The Extreme 5:51
04 - Assault of the Silver Dragons 5:01
05 - KURAYAMINOKUMO 4:56
06 - Distant Worlds 7:32
07 - Premonition 5:23
08 - Grand Cross 5:34
09 - Darkness and Starlight 15:32
10 - Life ~ in memory of KEITEN ~ 1:38

Favourite songs : "Assault of the Silver Dragons", "Opening ~ Bombing Mission" and "Premonition".

I found this album pretty late but it was exciting to see, that the band continues to write and play new material. It's a band formed by Nobuo Uematsu that plays progressive rock arrangements of Final Fantasy songs. What could go wrong with that?

The arrangements are mostly superb and very lively, my only gripes are probably with the last two tracks of the album; the title track has japanese opera singing and very many phases, so it's sort of interesting, but the songs showcased in this track aren't my favorite at all. The last track "Life ~ in memory of KEITEN ~" is a soothing piano song but it's really short, even when it's original work I'd call it an average effort compared to the superior first 4/5 of the album.

The songs are played pretty softly and clearly in general, still a surge of power comes into play quite often, which is appreciated. The players don't use dynamics whole lot per say but the musical mood swings are dynamic enough for me. Every player in the band is highly skilled with their instrument, the playing is amazingly accurate and really brings another dimension into the old Final Fantasy songs.

The exciting "rock band" way of playing the existing songs really blows new life into the already marvelous songs, so if you are fan of Final Fantasy series and/or music you should check these guys out immediately.

I'll give this album a happy chocobo 9-/10