Band:	Mägo De Oz
Album:	Folktergeist
Style:	Folk metal, Heavy metal
Release date:	2002
A review by:	Pierre Tombale

Disc I
01. Satania
02. Maritormes
03. El Que Quiera Entender Que Entienda
04. El Santo Grial
05. El Lago
06. Hasta Que El Cuerpo Aguante
07. El Cantar De La Luna Oscura
08. La Leyenda De La Mancha
09. Pensando En Ti [Kansas cover]

Disc II
01. Jesús De Chamberí
02. El Pacto
03. Réquiem
04. La Santa Compaña
05. Astaroth
06. La Danza Del Fuego
07. Fiesta Pagana
08. Hasta Que Tu Muerte Nos Separe
09. Molinos De Viento

Fölktergeist, the live album from the spanish folk-metal and rock sensation. 18 songs on 2 discs, over 110 minutes of great folk influenced metal and rock, but also other influences can be found in passages.

The first thing that meets the eye on the two disc digi-pack is the very colourful comic artwork, a large picture that is divided into three parts. Very funny. Enhanced by two booklet, one with phots only and one with lyrics it makes already a great outward appearance, but even more important is what meets the ears:

A great audience that can be heard on almost all tracks knowing and singing the songs of their hero's, that's I guess what describes best the atmosphere surrounding the music of Mago De Oz. Though my knowledge of spanish is poor I can really enjoy the lyrics, because even live José delivers a great performance. The music is of outstanding quality and interesting all the time. Very diverse, melodic under use of various instruments. Striking trademarks of Mago de Oz are the famous Flute and Violin. Every song is a highlight by itself, but if I had to name my favorite songs they would be: 'El cantar de la luna oscura' (The song of the dark moon) and 'Fiesta Pagana' (Pagan's Feast) the latter has been one of my favorite songs ever since I know it. The song 'Pensando en ti' is the spanish coverversion of 'Dust In The Wind' (by Kansas). Generally speaking Mago De Oz play the very softest side of metal I know, many songs you can't really say they are metal, but few songs on Fölktergeist show the rougher side of the band, right in the first song you may get to know the first example of it. But hard or soft in any way this band is special, combining the influences of Santana, Uriah Heep, Judas Priest (it's just what I can hear in their music, feel free to differ) other genres of music and their very own way of playing a folk-like soft metal failing to fit in any real genre.
'Fölktergeist' contains songs that are live better as the studio version, i.e. my favorite from disc 1 'El cantar de la luna oscura' has more drive than on the 'Jesus de Chamberi' album, though I don't know that many studio songs of the band I believe this could be true for many if not all of the songs that are presented here. The booklet does not state where the songs were recorded (or at least I can't read it because it's spanish!), but I assume from some several songs that the album was cut together from different performances, so I come to the conclusion that Mago have decided to provide their fans with all the best that they could deliver live.

Fölktergeist rocks 9.0 on the Richter-scale. I won't be getting into the details, but for me it's not 100% perfect. But in general I like the direct sound of the record although it's live, but the live feeling will come with the crowd singing along, screaming, applauding? Me gusta la música de Mago de Oz (I like the music of Mago de Oz)!