Jump to content

The Black Mages III - Darkness and Starlight


Animae
 Share

Recommended Posts

I enjoyed it for what it is--rockin' covers, for the most part. I haven't really studied it, just had it play in the background a couple of times, while doing other stuff.

I thought the title track was great. The singing wasn't all that interesting to me, but I was groovin' to the background track where possible.

My immediate thought was that they could have done some other song than the opening - bombing mission.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sadly, it seems like quite a step down from the previous two albums. I really enjoyed the first two albums but I can't really get into this one.

On the Black Mages website, all of'em were talking about how this album was their masterpiece and "the best one yet"... They also said this album was the "heaviest" of all their albums so far which I also have to disagree with. Just doesn't seem up to par for some reason... how sad

tsk, tsk, such a shame

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Sadly, it seems like quite a step down from the previous two albums. I really enjoyed the first two albums but I can't really get into this one.

On the Black Mages website, all of'em were talking about how this album was their masterpiece and "the best one yet"... They also said this album was the "heaviest" of all their albums so far which I also have to disagree with. Just doesn't seem up to par for some reason... how sad

tsk, tsk, such a shame

I agree, although my exact terminology would have been much more cynical. In fact, it was pretty bloody terrible. I think there was one song that was bearable, the rest were made of 100% home made epic fail.

Shame, the last one was good.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Yeah...pretty disappointing. I'd say Distant Worlds is pretty good (plus it introduced me to Memora de la Stona/Distant Worlds from FFXI, which is epic) and Opening~Bombing Mission is okay. The rest are thoroughly "meh". Darkness and Starlight is painful...like "getting sodomized by a cactus" painful.

Sorry Nobuo, less synthesizer/electronic stuff/terrible vocals and more guitar epicness.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Upon second listen through the entire album, I've come to the conclusion the the album isn't necessarily horrible... It was just not what was expected.

Being a guitarist, I have to say that even though the music is kind of "cheesy" with some(most) of the synth sounds they use throughout the album, the guitar prowess is there. These guys are going crazy throughout most of the album. Their sound seems to be a whole lot cleaner and tighter compared to their previous (heavier) albums. They are all very talented musicians. It's those other cheese sounds that hurt this album I think. I have no clue why they wouldn't use better sounds. It just baffles me...

Anyway, I enjoyed the album a little bit more the second time I listened through it.. EXCEPT for the Opera.. kind of wanted to kill myself listening to it but I made myself listen to the whole thing as I knew Uematsu and some of the other mages did actually sing choir parts for the song.

The album is still, however, not up to par with the previous two albums but I do recommend giving this album a couple of closer listens all the way through(EXCEPT for the opera) to try to see why they called this album their "best one yet"...

P.S.- Big Giant Circles' "Every Story Begins With A Name" (Opening:Bombing Mission FFVII) off Voices of the Lifestream totally owns the Black Mages version on this album IMO.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Big Giant Circles' "Every Story Begins With A Name" (Opening:Bombing Mission FFVII) off Voices of the Lifestream totally owns the Black Mages version on this album IMO.

Seconded. Although Premonition was pretty damn awesome, the rest of the album was a bit of a letdown really. It just wasn't as good as The Skies Above if you ask me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey all, new to the site and I thought I'd share about my experience the other day, since it seems relevant to this post and site.

I had a chance to meet Nobuo a few days ago at a promotional event for the Black Mages' album at Tower Records here in Shibuya (Tokyo). I had a brief conversation with him and everyone in attendance received posters signed by the band.

I actually had no idea what Voices of the Lifestream was until that day when I saw a Japanese dude wearing a shirt about the Voices project there. Nobuo pointed to the guy's shirt in the crowd and made a comment about the Voices project being great.

I don't know if anyone from the project has spoken with him about it, but I thought it would be nice to know that everyone's work is respected by the man himself :) Soo great job guys, amazing work and a great site, can't believe I didn't know of it until recently.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Hey all, new to the site and I thought I'd share about my experience the other day, since it seems relevant to this post and site.

I had a chance to meet Nobuo a few days ago at a promotional event for the Black Mages' album at Tower Records here in Shibuya (Tokyo). I had a brief conversation with him and everyone in attendance received posters signed by the band.

I actually had no idea what Voices of the Lifestream was until that day when I saw a Japanese dude wearing a shirt about the Voices project there. Nobuo pointed to the guy's shirt in the crowd and made a comment about the Voices project being great.

I don't know if anyone from the project has spoken with him about it, but I thought it would be nice to know that everyone's work is respected by the man himself :) Soo great job guys, amazing work and a great site, can't believe I didn't know of it until recently.

Whoa! Details, man, details. Was the shirt "Voices of the Lifestream"... or "Voices"?!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

He was simply wearing a white shirt with the image of the cover of the VoTL CD printed on the front and back. It was distinctly a guitar with FFVII; I'm sure of it because I was standing right behind the kid.

It seemed odd that Nobuo would point out such a thing and praise his own work, so it sparked my interest and I googled it. It could have easily been homemade and was meant to be signed by Nobuo but unfortunately he didn't sign any of the stuff people brought. The posters are pretty cool though.

He was very down to earth and was poking fun at himself and the band. I've only been in Japan for about 6 months so my Japanese is far from perfect, but we shook the hands of the band members and exchanged a few words. It was starting to rain and we were on the rooftop so we didn't stick around long.

Edit:

Okay I searched the distant worlds art stuff and can confirm it looked nothing at all like the dude's shirt. Sorry I don't have much more info, didn't occur to me at the time 8O We were told not to take any pictures, though I snuck one of them all sitting there doing a QandA session. suc50071tr9.th.jpg Pic of the poster is here suc50076to8.th.jpg Nobuo's signature is the (silver one) in kanji on the bottom left.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Can anybody give me a song list and what games they are from? I'm looking for a specific song from FFVII and FFIII. Thanks.

Bombing Run from FFVII

Neo-Ex Death from FFV

The Extreme from FFVIII

Premonition from FFVIII

Distant Worlds(no idea)

Assault of The White Dragons(FFIX)

Darkness and Starlight(FFVI)

Life

Grand Cross(FFIX)

Kurayaminokumo.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

 Share

×
×
  • Create New...