THE BLACK MAGES

The Black Mages is an instru-metal band formed in 2002. Their music is almost entirely based on founding member Nobuo Uematsu’s works for the "Final Fantasy" RPG series; as such, the band’s popularity is tantamount to that of the RPGs themselves. As of early 2010, the band consists of six game composers: Uematsu and Ken’ichirô Fukui on keyboards, Tsuyoshi Sekito and Michio Okamiya on guitar, bassist Keiji Kawamori, and Arata Hanyuda on drums.