GAIA II: LA VOZ DORMIDA

In this album you can find their most ambitiuos and most progressive work to date. Songs like "El poema de la noche triste", "El paseo de los tristes", "En nombre de dios", "Aquelare" and last but not least the album closer "La cantata del diablo(missit me dominus)" wich clocks in at 21:11. You can see that they put alot of effort on these songs and specialy the album closer. With this songs and some other good ones ("Diabolus in musica", "Desde mi cielo" etc.) they could have made an tremendous one album work or even a masterpiece! But sadly this is double album with alot of bad stuff in it.

The bad part of this album are the really bad songs (and at times I mean REALLY bad songs). You can clearly see that they where desperate for getting money and made ,IMO, some of their most baddest/ comercial songs. "Hazme un sitio entre tu piel", "La posada de los muertos" are a prime example on how low they got in this album.

There are also some very heavy-metal songs too. It seems that they left some of the folkish influences on there way to record this album. They use more the piano and their guitarist than their violinist and their flutist to make a more hard-edge sound.

Overrall this a like a minefield, you can get a really great album but be careful not to hit the comercial/bad songs on the way through. If you're interested in Mago de Oz I suggest you start with GAIA ,or for the prog metal fans FINISTERRA. For people who want to know how prog Mago can be then check out the songs I listed in the second paragraph.

If only it was a single cd instead of a double album . . .

Yes, there's no question about it. This is an epic power metal album with progressive elements, not a pure progressive metal album. This is music in the same vein as RHAPSODY OF FIRE. The neo-classical touches abound, as do the orchestral interludes, the anthem-like choruses, the usual Latin/Greek intros, the typical dramatic storytelling, the fast, relentless drums and guitars, joined by instruments like the violin or the flute to add to medieval flavor. This is epic power metal.

But rarely have I heard an album that has entertained me as much as "Gaia II: La Voz Dormida". Usually, I complain about music like this when bands release records full of repetitive songs, where it's hard to distinguish when one track ends and when the next one begins. Even a band like RHAPSODY would receive this criticism from me except in their best album. But MAGO DE OZ pulls a miracle here: a double album of epic metal that never bored me or seemed repetitive to me.

This is accomplished thanks to the balance of quiet and fast tracks, of soft melodic interludes and frantic guitar battles. This is also accomplished by the excellent melodies and hooks that one can find throughout this record. Every little song is memorable in its own way. None of them may be incredibly groundbreaking or original, but all of them are enjoyable, not one is dull or drags for too long. Next to instrumental-only tracks made in Hollywood-music style we can find the epic anthems with sing-along choruses, followed by tender moments for piano and vocals, after which an avalanche of guitar scales befalls, then we encounter passages that take us in a voyage back in time to the Middle Ages, and we're immediately brought back to the present by ferocious cascades of throttling drums. The equilibrium in the album is maintained during more than one hour and a half, which is a truly remarkable feat for a release of this kind of music.

Of course, the excellent musicianship of the band helps a lot. Drummer and lyrical/musical mastermind Txus de Fellatio constantly keeps a breathing pulse, while the bassist provides the grounds necessary to maintain the pressure. All the guitarists (there are a few in here) are terrific, as is Mohamed in the violin and Ponce de Leon on the flute. The vocals are outstanding, very melodic but also powerful. It helps that the lyrics deal with an interesting subject, as is the nefarious influence of religion in history. The band shows conviction while playing tracks to these lyrics.

I usually wouldn't dare to give an album in this genre which so barely scraps the prog-surface more than 3 stars for pure quality and enjoyment. But, as I will do soon with RHAPSODY's "Symphony of Enchanted Lands", I can't do anything else but applaud and recognize a band that has managed to surpass the problems intrinsic to the sort of music they play and that has released a double album listening to which I never, not for one minute, wanted the experience to end sooner rather than later. Excellent musicianship, excellent melodies, great entertainment value, a lot of music. What else should I ask from a record to award it a perfect rating?