Search - Black Mages :: Black Mages 3: Darkness & Starlight

Crawling to the Finish Line

Kale Vendargo | Alexandria, MN USA | 05/30/2008

(2 out of 5 stars)

"The Black Mages cater to a very specific niche - that is, they play prog rock remakes of battle themes from the Final Fantasy video game series. I was a fan of their first two releases. They were musically interesting, and they were a rare instrumental group that could be listened to as music, rather than just enjoyable background noise (though they worked pretty well for that, too).



However, in the second release, a few cracks began to show. In order for this music to really work, there has to be at least some connection to the source material. Simply put, they were running out of interesting themes to duplicate. That problem is only exascerbated on Darkness and Starlight, and it quickly becomes apparent that the best songs have long since been exhausted.



Something that quickly becomes noticable is that these songs become monotonous quickly. There are no fun quirky songs like 'Vamo Allo' Flamenco' to break things up, no 'Matoya's Cave' to slow things down, just wave after wave of very similar sounding music. It ends up failing where the first two offerings succeeded - with very few exceptions it only works as background music.



Things come to a head on the painfully overlong title track, where the Mages take an interesting concept (an epic metal opera), then continue to play it until the listener's attention span begs for mercy. DOn't get me wrong, I love some Sigur Rós, and I actually found 'Dancing Mad' to be enthralling for it's 12 minute duration, but 15 minutes for this particular track is too long by about 10 minutes.



After the disc comes to a close, the first thought in my mind is that the Black Mages had a good run, but this particular gimmick has completely run its course. I can't imagine a Black Mages IV (or, at the veryleast, not one base don FF music); and I have to say, that really doesn't bother me."

Disappointingly average

Jennifer L Sigman | Columbia, SC United States | 05/21/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"An unfortunate selection of bland tracks makes this album a bit of a disappointment when compared to the other two. Nothing really stands out in a good way."

A different listen from the first two...

M. Welhan | 10/05/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"If you liked the first two CDs by the Black Mages, then you may or may not like this one. It goes in a different direction from the first two, on the following points.



1) The guitars are more of a background instrument. They only take front stage in a few isolated spots on the album, usually giving way to the keyboards. This is the biggest problem I have with this CD. On the other hand...



2) The arrangements here are pretty top notch, even if they are maybe a little too heavy on the keyboards. Nobuo's keyboard solos are very cool, but they're just not the blistering guitar solos that I prefer. As far as capturing the mood and feel of the songs, though, the arrangements are awesome. Especially the title track, which is amazing--its more "dream theater" than Dream Theater. I don't find it boring in the slightest, as opposed to what one of the other reviewers said. While I'm talking about this track, I'm just gonna mention that the female vocalist lays it on pretty thick and it takes some getting used to, but it is done well.



3) As far as the rockin battle music type compositions that are found on the previous two albums, the songs on this album just aren't cut out for that job. Only "The Extreme", "Grand Cross" and maybe "Assault of the Silver Dragons" are similar enough to the first two CDs to appear along side them. "Grand Cross" does have an insanely heavy guitar riff though, which is great, and its my favorite on the CD after the title track. I have to put the title track first, just because its so epic.



To sum up, I think its a great album, but definitely not for all fans of the first two. I didn't like it as much as the first two on my first listen, because it felt so different. But, after a few listens it began to grow on me and I can now appreciate all of the tracks found here, but for different reasons than the first albums. In the end though, I like it less than the first two albums, just because its not what I was looking for from the Black Mages. Hopefully, Nobuo was just getting some of this stuff out of the way so that he could really throw down with a solid 4th album that brings back the huge guitar pyrotechnics and heavy riffs!"