[Album] The Black Mages 2 ~The Skies Above (UPCH-1377)

This album is highly inconsistent and does nothing, in my opinion, to show that The Black Mages are anything beyond a group of fan pleasers with anything original to offer. Michio Okamiya and Kenichiro Fukui are better than Mr. Generic himself, Tsuyoshi Sekito, but both are still wildly inconsistent here, the former producing both the best arrangement on the album ("Maybe I'm a Lion") and the hideous "Otherworld".

I didn't actually mind "The Skies Above", but perhaps that's because it is refreshing to see that The Black Mages don't take themselves too seriously. Mr. Goo certainly made the theme his own. I only found this, the two FFVIII arrangements, and "Matoya's Cave" anything worth frequently revisiting, considering these are the few arrangements that really boast an originality factor. Excusing "Otherworld", the other renditions were tolerable, but could have been more powerful, ultimately being formulaic and quite dull.

I'm looking forward to The Black Mages III, but only for some light amusement. I haven't found too much VGM rock that I truly enjoy yet (I don't dig much cheesy rockin'), but vastly prefer a lot of GG, Sakuraba, SMT, and Falcom to this hackneyed, albeit sometimes fun, rubbish. 4 out of 5 as a fan pleaser, 2 out of 5 as a rock experience.

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