Fölktergeist

Breakout album and commercial success of Spanish metal band Mägo de Oz, Finisterra, was supported by an extensive tour that was captured and launched in this live record. I've always believed that live albums can be as a good idea as a bad one: bands can deliver an excellent performance (Opeth’s Lamentations) and create a testimony of a great live act (Iron Maiden), an even a great crowd (any concert recorded in Japan), or their hidden in studio flaws can jump in the listener's face (any Dream Theater live recording that has James LaBrie…). Recorded in their natal Spain, where then they were nearly gods, Mägo de Oz' Fölktergeist is an example of a live album showing a great live act... and a showing the band's flaws.

To begin with, vocalist Jose Andrea is amazing in this live record. Being a strong vocal performer, he really surpasses the studio work and delivers great passionate performances, most heard in the deeper emotional songs (Requiem, Pensando en ti, El Lago), maintaining power and staying in tune. He can also be heard constantly speaking to the crowd, joking with them and even building the performance around them (Hasta que tu muerte nos separe). His work is certainly the brightest point from the album.

Now, if you got a band that has studio albums with some foreign elements to the ones played by the member or you overdub your players work, you may lost some virtues if you go live without a backing track, which is the case in a couple of songs in this recording (El que quiera entender que entienda, where a section originally with strings and piano is replaced by a wtf? arrangement; Satania, where all the chorus work is lost).While that change gets a pass or fail note depending on the listener, I will only warn about it and mention that I'm not generally thrilled about the final live sound.

But this is not the most noticeable change from studio tracks to live records. Let's clarify that, despite this live album band formation contemplates a flute player and a keyboardist, those two sound elements were present in one of four Mägo de oz albums (occasional piano work hidden here and there), so their addition to the band and the whole setlist implies that now all songs have flutes and keyboards. Naturally, this can lead to some interesting versions (El Lago sounds nice, El cantar de la luna oscura sounds superb), but the once metal-with-violin band is now a metal-with-violin-and-flute band, where the flute does nothing other than play the violin melody a third or sixth above. And after several songs, that can become annoying.

This is the detail that leads to speak about the production of the album: the crowd is well integrated and never surpasses the band's volume, but the mix of the band itself is not as bright as one would want, especially noticeable when the flute shuts down the violin sound in half of the album. However, guitar mixing is good, while bass mix gets a nice sound and presence. Drumming is recorded as best as possible.

And here is where I start in the low point of the album: drumming. Hearing Mägo de Oz' discography before and after this recording, you can notice that they've never had drumming of outstanding quality, commonly being the low point of their works, but things in this album became very worrisome: sometimes drummer not being able to reproduce the sounds from studio albums and his drumming it's weak at most, when not bad at all (I really need to mention a terrible moment in Requiem where while snare goes right on beat, bass sounds clearly erratic and out of tempo).

However, once noticing that drums are not a bright part in Mägo de Oz' work, this live album does live up the expectations: it's a great set-list; you can almost say there's no song missing, but specially remarkable is that despite being almost two hours long, you have no low point in the song choices. And there's something else I want to mention: the crowd from this concerts was amazing, perfectly captured in the record and audible in every song, detail that I miss from several live albums. This really takes the listener to the concert place, which is something I value a lot, and I believe that should be the first and most important objective from a live album.

So, wrapping, this live album shows exactly what the band was at that point of their career: strong vocalist, nice yet-not-virtuoso guitar work, folky catch tunes, a bit of arrangement excess, bad drumming, but above all, a more than average live act loved by its crowd.


Highlights (from a double album): Hasta que el cuerpo aguante (awesome crowd moment), El cantar de la luna oscura, Jesús de Chamberí, Hasta que tu muerte nos separe (that crowd, man!), and (despite drumming) Requiem.

I believed there are 3 criteria for rating a live album: band performance, set list and production.
For Folktergeist, Mago de Oz definitely has fulfilled the statement above.
The band performance is something that this Wizard have up their ass, they can really make you get in their music even if you are not a folk metal fan, the songs in here are played even better than in their studio versions, except for Molinos de Viento which is played with too much flutes in it, and just ruined the violin (al least for me). Jose voices is clear and with a lot of power ( he sounds like Mark Vanderbilt former Kamelot singer). Musically is also good all the instruments are in perfect harmony and sound really good together.
The set list is also great this is a double CD so it has most of Mago hits but is missing I think Kelpie and Los Renglones Torcidos de Dios, but hey there are so many good songs in here that you don’t even noticed that.
The production in here is perfect the biggest problem I found in live albums is the fact that the crowd is almost hearable but in this one just sound perfect singing (not overwhelming the sound of the band) every song and participating along too.
This record is a perfect introduction to Mago and Metal for that case. An excellent purchase for heavy metal fans with folk influences and for the ones that are tired of hearing generic bands. Highly recommended.