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 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 tracklist in English, lyrics to "Otherworld" and "The Skies Above" in English and artwork of dragons.