Mägo de Oz

A popular and prolific Spanish folk-metal outfit with a strong Celtic streak, Madrid's Mägo de Oz (Spanish for "Wizard of Oz") draw from a rich tapestry of hard rock subgenres, including symphonic, pagan, and power metal; they have issued no less than five rock operas. Playful and inventive, the band deftly weave elements of fantasy, satire, literature, witchcraft, and offbeat humor into their material (their name is Spanish for Wizard of Oz), with a metal umlaut tossed in for good measure. Since debuting with a self-titled album in 1994, the band have delivered increasingly ambitious conceptual pieces, with highlights arriving via the dystopian, two-part Finisterra (the latter one an opera) and the epic Gaia trilogy. Other seminal works include 2017's globally acclaimed Diabulus in Opera and 2021's Bandera Negra.

Founded in 1989 by drummer Txus di Fellatio -- the band has hosted dozens of different musicians over the years -- the first iteration of the group solidified in 1992 under the moniker Transilvania. A strong showing in the Rock de Villa de Madrid contest prompted a name change, and in 1994 they released their eponymous debut album as Mägo de Oz. A period of personnel upheaval preceded the release of the group's sophomore effort, Jesús de Chamberí, a rock opera about Jesus returning to the Madrid neighborhood of Chamberí. That album, along with La Bruja -- an EP stocked with five re-recorded songs featuring a new lead vocalist -- greatly increased the band's profile. A modern retelling of Miguel de Cervantes' Don Quixote, La Leyenda de La Mancha arrived in 1998, followed in 1999 by Resacosix en Hispania, a film celebrating the group's tenth anniversary.

The band doubled down on the conceptual route for 2000's Finisterra, a two-volume set concerning a fictional digital dystopia, and again in 2003 with the release of the ambitious Gaia, the first installment of a trilogy about the Spanish conquest of America and the ecological damage caused by mankind, which continued in 2005 with Gaia II: La Voz Dormida and concluded in 2010 with Gaia III: Atlantia and the ancillary Gaia Epílogo. In between the latter offerings, the group issued the stand-alone studio album La Ciudad de los Árboles and the concert LP A Costa da Morte. Hechizos Pocimas y Brujerias arrived in 2012, and was the first Mägo de Oz outing for new vocalist Zeta; he replaced longtime frontman José Andrëa who'd left the fold the year prior. Ilussia, the band's circus-themed 12th studio long-player, was released in 2014, followed in 2015 by Finisterra Opera Rock, a re-recording of the group's 2000 release that featured numerous collaborations. It included the addition of veteran metal soprano Patricia Tapia in the lineup.

Diabulus in Opera, a sprawling live album/video with full orchestra and choir, was issued in 2017 to universal acclaim. Two years later the band returned with Ira Dei, a biblical and apocalyptic concept LP produced by Alberto Seara and Raquel Flores. The 14-song set also included a full choir and orchestra. 2021's Bandera Negra featured Tapia as a duet partner/co-lead vocalist with Javier "Zeta" Domínguez. ~ James Christopher Monger, Rovi