In 2003, Tsuyoshi Sekito and Kenichiro Fukui produced the album "The Black Mages", which arranged Nobuo Uematsu's battle themes from the Final Fantasy series in a progressive metal style. Soon after, Uematsu joined the duo to form the eponymous band THE BLACK MAGES, where they would perform on their first official album, "The Black Mages Live".

The Black Mages had two sequel albums performed by the band proper: "The Black Mages II: The Skies Above" in 2004 and "The Black Mages III: Darkness and Starlight" in 2008. Much like the original album that spawned the band, these albums largely consisted of Final Fantasy arrangements.

The Black Mages also performed on a few unrelated tracks across multiple albums, including the arrangement of Tomohito Nishiura's "Flame Demon Monster Gaspard" for the Dark Chronicle Premium Arrange album.

On August 2010 Nobuo Uematsu confirmed The Black Mages had already been disbanded, without specifying the date and the reason.