LA LEYENDA DE LA MANCHA

I really don't know why this band is here, because I honestly think they are not progressive... They only have three or four progressive tracks in their whole career and in later releases, and this is not enough. I've heard a lot of very much progressive bands wich are not in Progarchives. Nevertheless, I will make a review of "La Leyenda de la Mancha", because is a great record (although it's not progressive...)

Mägo de Oz is probalby the most famous and commercial rock band in Spain today. They are very well known in my country because they had a great success with a song, Fiesta Pagana of their album "Finisterra", wich sounded in all the discotheques of Spain 5 years ago... This band has changed a lot through the years, musically and personally, increasing the quantity of instruments, achieving better production, and making more and more commercial tracks oriented... And loosing a lot of honesty from their members and musical quality in this time. "Finisterra" was a huge success, like "Gaia" and "Gaia II", but not as good as the two real great records from this band: "Jesús the Chamberí" and, of course, their better disc "La Leyenda de La Mancha".

"La Leyenda de la Mancha" is based in the book "Don Quixote", by Miguel de Cervantes, a spanish classic book... The album it's not too long, but enough to develope a little the great history of Don Quixote, although all with the particular vision of Mägo de Oz of this history (particulary, the vision of the main man of this band, the infamous Txus). Txus is a good lyricist, and some songs have great lyrics, like Molinos de Viento, El Pacto and Ancha es Castilla.

Musically, Mägo de Oz makes a folk heavy metal in this album, with some rock and hard rock elements... Nothing progressive here. Maybe some musical developements, like El Santo Grial, wich includes a fragment from Johannes Brahms are a little prog, but not real prog songs here... The production isn't great, and you will see that in the flaw sound of the violin, and the drums aren't very good, because Txus is a mediocre drummer. But the songs are great, with a strong composition and interpretated with a lot of sentiment. In addition, something you can't deny is that this band is original, with a personal sound. And a thing that helps to built this personal sound, is the awesome voice of Jose. This is one of the best rock singers in Spain. His high pitched voice fits perfectly with the violins of Mohammed, and his interpretation in this album is a path to follow to a lot of heavy metal singers from Spain... This man has a treasure for voice, really.

Best songs: La Leyenda de La Mancha (hard rock song with a very catchy choir), Molinos de Viento (the most succesful song of the album, with a very good violin and choir. Later, Mägo de Oz would make a lot of auto-copies of this song with Fiesta Pagana, La costa del Silencio, La Posada de los Muertos...), El Bálsamo de Fierabrás (this track sound like AC/DC with violins. Very funny lyircs too...), El Pacto (heavy metal song with a lot of Iron Maiden feeling and a good instrumental developement), El Templo del Adiós (Rainbow cover, almost identic but with good lyrics...) y Ancha es Castilla (totally folk song with beautiful lyrics and flutes...) But the whole album is pretty enjoyable, and it's recommended to hear it completely to understand and understand the story...

Conclusion: if you want to know this rock band from Spain, this is without a doubt their best album. Very good songs with the personal seal of this band. After this album, the band will spoil themselves in the comerciality and reiterations...

Warning: this is not a progressive album, just heavy and hard rock with a lot of folk and celtics influences, with an omnipresent presence of the Mohammed's violin... So I can't really say that this is an excellent addition to any prog music collection, although a think that this is a great record.

My personal rate: ****

ProgArchives rate: ***