The Black Mages II: The Skies Above

The Black Mages II: The Skies Above is the second studio album of Nobuo Uematsu's band The Black Mages. Unlike its predecessor, The Skies Above does not make use of sequenced drums, instead relying on percussionist Arata Hanyuda's performance on each track. The track listing includes a wider selection of musical themes drawn from the series, not merely focusing on the battle music.
The Skies Above features vocal tracks written by Alexander O. Smith, the translator for Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy XII. Guest vocalists Tomoaki Watanabe (as "Mr. Goo") and KAZCO appear on the songs "The Skies Above" and "Otherworld" respectively. "Maybe I'm a Lion" features a small vocal introduction by Alexander O. Smith himself.
The album also includes the original track titled "Blue Blast - Winning the Rainbow". Written by Nobuo Uematsu, it is an original composition created as a theme song for Japanese K1 fighter Takehiro Murahama. It was played as the encore at LIVE "Above The Sky".
The liner notes have the track list in English, lyrics to "Otherworld" and "The Skies Above" in English and artwork of dragons.
==Track list==
# — 3:56
#: From Final Fantasy III
# — 3:52
#: From Final Fantasy IV
# — 4:25
#: From Final Fantasy IX
# — 4:45
#: From Final Fantasy IX
# — 3:15
#: From Final Fantasy X
# — 4:44
#: From Final Fantasy
# — 4:17
#: From Final Fantasy VIII
# — 5:35
#: From Final Fantasy VIII
# — 3:59
#: From Final Fantasy IV
# — 7:19
#: From Final Fantasy X
# — 4:49
#: Original composition
==See also==
*The Black Mages, the eponymous first album
*The Black Mages III: Darkness and Starlight
==External links==
*VGMdb - The Black Mages II: The Skies Above
*VGMdb - The Black Mages II: The Skies Above (reprint)
*Exclusive Interview with The Black Mages containing statements about "Blue Blast - Winning the Rainbow"
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Black Mages 02