Darkness and Starlight

If you read the post's title and believe that i'm going to talk about something related to the night sky or even astronomy, you probably haven't realised that this is the title of an album. Darkness and Starlight is the album produced by The Black Mages this day last year. As their 3rd album, Darkness and Starlight is a combination of rock versions of original Final Fantasy games' soundtracks, such as Grand Cross (The Black Mage's version of The Final Battle theme in Final Fantasy IX) and the Opening-Bombing Mission song from Final Fantasy VII's first chapter, as well as original songs including Life ~in memory of KEITEN~. Though this album is up for a whole year by now, I only managed to get all the songs recently as I haven't been free for some time.

Just to briefly introduce about The Black Mages... they are a instrumental rock band organised by Nobuo Uematsu, original producer of many songs in different Final Fantasy games and even movies, such as Final Fantasy VII and Advent Children. Most of the songs that they play are like rock remixes of the original, and indeed many of them are a true success. In this way, the songs you hear are not wave soundtracks, or basic tunes originally made from computer softwares, but rather you will hear the song played by proper music instruments like the electric guitar, keyboard, etc.

Up till now, they have only released 3 albums:The Black Mages, The Black Mages-The Skies Above and The Black Mages-Darkness and Starlight. With the addition of all the songs from Darkness and Starlight, my list of Black Mages album songs are finally complete :)

Here's the top 10 of my favourite Black Mages album rock songs:
1.Clash on the Big Bridge (Final Fantasy V, Gilgamesh's theme!)
2.J-E-N-O-V-A (Final Fantasy VII, Jenova's theme)
3.Those Who Fight Further (Final Fantasy VII, boss theme)
4.The Man with the Machine Gun (Final Fantasy VIII, Laguna's theme)
5.Maybe I'm a Lion (Final Fantasy VIII, Ultimecia fight's theme)
6.Blue Blast - Winning the Rainbow (a non-Final Fantasy song, but still nice)
7.Opening - Bombing Mission (Final Fantasy VII, AVALAUNCHE's first mission's song)
8.The Extreme (Final Fantasy VIII)
9.The Rocking Grounds (Final Fantasy III, battle theme)
10.Dancing Mad (Final Fantasy VI)

Despite having rock songs as their main genre, The Black Mages have come up with melodious songs as well. The ones I particularly enjoy Vamo' Alla Flamenco (Final Fantasy IX) and Matoya's Cave (Final Fantasy I; you might find this song familiar even if you have never played Final Fantasy before).

All in all, even though most people nowadays would listen to other various rock/pop songs, there are still these unique songs that you can try listening to. If ever you think of the darkness and starlight, remember there are also songs that can be equally enjoying as gazing at the night sky.