I am LOVING these choices so far. 

Is anyone else's movie download cutting off just as the demo mix of Dragons is about to play? -_-;

Yeah, but only the English version does it; download the Japanese one and it is uncut.

Yes!  Final Battle/Neo Ex-Death made it in! 

And it's sounding mighty tasty, to boot.

Full tracklist:

1) "Opening ~ Bombing Mission" [from Final Fantasy VII] (Kenichiro Fukui)
2) "Neo ExDeath" [from Final Fantasy V - The Final Battle] (Michiro Okamiya)
3) "The Extreme" [from Final Fantasy VIII] (Michio Okamiya)
4) "Assault of the Silver Dragons" [from Final Fantasy IX] (Arata Hanyuda)
5) Kuraminokumo [from Final Fantasy III - This is the Last Battle] (Kenichiro Fukui)
6) "Distant Worlds" [from Final Fantasy XI] (Kenichiro Fukui)
7) "Premonition" [from Final Fantasy VIII] (Tsuyoshi Sekito)
8) "Grand Cross" [from Final Fantasy IX - "Final Battle"] (Keiji Kawamori)
9) "Darkness and Starlight" [from Final Fantasy VI - "Mario and Draco"] (Part 1 by Tsuyoshi Sekito, Part 2 and 4 by Kenichiro Fukui, Part 3 by Michio Okamiya)
10) LIFE ~in memory of KEITEN~ (Original Composition by Nobuo Uematsu)

So, I was wrong. The Black Mages are going to sing the chorus part of "Darkness and Starlight".

Ho-lee. Well, most of my predictions fell through, but I'm still damn happy anyway. (Even if they are shortchanging us by throwing FF3's track on there. Jerks~!)

And I can't believe I didn't catch the reference to the FF6 opera until just now. It's right there in the title, dammit. "I'm the darkness, you're the starlight..." Just never made the connection.

*goes to camp out by his mailbox for a few weeks*

Source is the full article about this here. I compiled the information from the highly interesting video here which includes samples of all the tracks but "LIFE".

Anyway, this sounds like it's going to be so good. I'm very pleased with the samples and track listings. "Mario and Draco" (woo, Mr. Goo I think) and "LIFE" sound like they're going to be especially special.

Actually, it looks like it's The Black Mages themselves doing the vocals for this one.

...Wonder which one of them gets to play Maria. :x

Heh, I did call "Aria Di Mezzo Carattere" right -- or, at least some rendition of it will presumably be featured in the "Opera ~ Maria and Draco" track.  Most of us called "The Extreme" correctly.  Thought FFIX's Messenger of Destruction would've been a far more befitting choice than Final Battle.  But, of course, I'm delighted with the inclusion of Neo EXDEATH and Assault of The Silver Dragons.

The video shows otherwise. It says that there are solo performances by those who have performed the piece at Final Fantasy concerts and there is clearly a female soprano heard. In addition, the bit that shows four members of the Black Mages singing (Okamiya, Fukui, Uematsu, Hanyuda) portrays them in a supporting role while there is also a tenor shown (who I'm pretty sure is Mr. Goo, aka Tomoaki Watanabe of Final Fantasy concert fame). I think the piece is a series effort not  a semi-joke like "The Skies Above" and I actually thought the four members did a good supporting vocal role in the video. So, members of The Black Mages are in the chorus, but there are professional soloists.

BTW, I'm really pleased that they're fleshing out the roles of the other members of the band in this album. I really enjoy Michio Okamiya's "Maybe I'm a Lion" and Keiji Kawamori's "The Chase on the Highway". Hope their offerings here together with Arata Hanyuda's "Assault of the Silver Dragons" is just as wonderful. Seems like Tsuyoshi Sekito's arrangement role is small here for the first time, but I guess The Last Remnant is a very demanding project. And it's wonderful that Kenichiro Fukui is still producing interesting creations like "Distant Worlds" and "Darkness and Starlight" despite his Square Enix departure to become a lecturer.

Hopefully they are re-recording it, and not just taking the same track as on FFIIIDS OST.

-_-

-Joshua

There was a sample of this in their second interview video. I couldn't here any performance changes despite the Japanese name. I don't care about the reuse here. The arrangement and performance is solid and most bands rehash single material much more often.

Thank God they're not singing in English.  The songs actually sound really good!  But where is Final Fantasy IV? 

That's really irrelevent. But then again, I've never been a fan of album-as-a-whole mentality that people seem to have. I HATE getting repeats.

-Joshua

Given how long we've waited and given we were expecting more than a one disc release, it's unfortunate that a repeat is included for the hardcore fans. However, most don't even know that The Black Mages made a track for the Final Fantasy III Original Soundtrack (never mind the Dark Chronicle Premium Arrange). It's solid and little-known, so I don't think there's much shameful here. I actually really expected a rehash of "Advent: One Winged Angel" (well, it would have had to have been a new recording because only three of the band performed it on the Advent Children soundtrack) but I guess they resisted because it's too well-known. Compared to most bands then, I think they have a lot of integrity and I think that's relevant at least.

AWESOME, especially the first one!

I still want the FFVII main theme arrangement that the did at the 2005 Square Enix party. 

Arg!  No "Fight 2" from FFIV??!?!  Then there better be a Black Mages IV album then.  Grrr... =p

First I ever heard of it and I thought I knew a lot about the band! Do you have any more details, e.g. set listings of the event?

That was the only thing that they played at the event, and it was only a few members.  I actually couldn't remember for sure, so I dug up my post about it on the old forums.  Check it out if you want to read about the other music performed there:

http://www.altpop.com/stc/forum/message … read=37652

Personally, I'm not at all impressed with this tracklist. But we'll see how it ends up sounding. I can't see Black Mages doing justice to Distant Worlds ... but again, time will tell.

The Extreme, Premonition, Grand Cross.

Preordered.

Ha ha, yeah. Makes me wonder how no one noticed that before.

http://tbm3.blog15.fc2.com/

The site's got 40 second clips of all the tracks save the last one.  I think they sound better than the demo versions we heard in the tracks.  I'm looking forward to this one greatly!

[Disregard Post]

Funniest post I've ever read. Thanks, Bernhardt!

Congrats, you just shot up to the top of my shit list. 

*finds a nerf ball and hurls it at Bernhardt's head*

Bravo ! You've also made it into the top of my list. *slow clap*

As well as mine.

If you did your research by checking other game music sites (or the official Black Mages II site), you'd find that Grand Cross is Final Fantasy IX's Final Battle, KURAYAMINOKUMO is Final Fantasy III's Final Battle, and Darkness and Starlight is the FFVI Opera in entirety.

Only the last track is an original piece, and it's a tribute piece to someone who was a big fan of Uematsu and passed away due to a terminal illness.

Was there ever anything else heard in regards to Uematsu mentioning that he wanted to do 'Dancing Mad' with an actual full orchestra with and full choir and stuff?

Or THIS VERY THREAD.

[Disregard Post]

If you don't care enough to read the posts in a topic you're posting in, why should anyone care enough to read your post?

I never said I understood you or was agreeing with you. Just that I laughed at your post.

This is not the first time The Black Mages have renamed their arrangements.

"Battle 1" from FF3 became "The Rocking Grounds".
"The Final Battle" from FF4 became "Zeromus".
"The Dreadful Fight" from FF4 became "Battle with the Four Fiends".
"At Zanarkand" from FF10 became "The Skies Above".

Also, I played through FF5 on the GBA for the first time only a few weeks ago, enjoyed the soundtrack greatly, and am definitely looking forward to the Neo EXDEATH track on this album. But you can be angry about it if that's more fun for you. <3

"Battle with the Four Fiends" is an English translation of the Japanese title (in the FF IV and VI OSTs, every track has both a Japanese title and an English one, and they're often completely different).

This actually happened. There's a YouTube Clip floating around out there...it even has an organ.

-Joshua

This version is played first time in Fourth Symphonic Game Music Concert. But the video don't exists anymore.

http://www.vgmconcerts.com/main.php?sec … ng=english

Eventually "Dancing Mad" is presented in PLAY! A Video Game Symphony too.