YMMV / Mägo de Oz

• And You Thought It Would Fail: While Txus is often criticized for being a bad drummer, his role in Bürdel King proved, against the expectations of many, that he is a surprisingly decent singer and showman, to the extent of being able to carry the weight of a band on his shoulders.
• Broken Base:
  • The band's most famous song ever, and seemingly the only Mägo song the average non-fan can cite, is "Fiesta Pagana" from Finisterra. However, while there is an agreement among fans that the song is a classic, there is some discussion about whether it actually embodies the spirit and style of Mägo to deserve to be their best known song. This is even more complicated, because there used to be a time in which "La Costa del Silencio" from Gaia seemed to be in the road of taking the place of "Fiesta Pagana" - which brings its own debate about whether it is a better representation of the band's style or not.
  • While more or less everybody agrees that Zeta is a good vocalist in his own right, whether he is or not in José's league used to be a debate capable of sending shockwaves around the world. The only unanimous points are that they have very different voices (and thus they are not entirely comparable) and that Zeta is a better live singer, at least compared to José's last years, while José is a better live showman, similarly compared to the initial Zeta.
  • Celtic Land, a 25th anniversary disc that contained covers of old songs made in collaboration with international artists, was incredibly divisive. While some praised its epicness and good work, others complained about its unoriginality and Zeta's less than perfect English, and also accused the whole disc of being an attempt to bury José's work.
  • Finisterra Opera Rock, a version of Finisterra redone by Zeta and many guest artists, received a tepid reception by everybody, but for very different reasons. Detractors of Zeta argued that his voice was unfit for the album's style and (again) that it was a sign of disrespect to José to redo old songs; defenders opined that the real problem is that the guest artists didn't team up well with Zeta and that he should have sung the album all by himself.
  • While Ilussia managed to beat the previous disc in sales and left a deeper mark in the band's story, its quirky style meant reviews were often completely opposed to each other about what songs were the best in its list.
• Critical Dissonance:
  • Happened between Hechizos, pócimas y brujería and Ilussia, the first two discs of the Zeta era. The latter beat the former in sales, popularity and impact overall, but the former actually has the victory in ratings by most music review sites.
  • The Bürdel King project. Loved by critics, moderately successful for a sub-band of that kind, yet reviled by a lot of people, usually for being the vanity project of the most disliked member of the group.
• Critic-Proof:
  • Gaia III received complaints by fans and critics due to its divergent, somewhat weird change in style, but it still won a Gold Disc, just like every successful album of Mägo.
  • Hechizos, pócimas y brujería is not as well remembered as other classics (not only for lacking an overarching Rock Opera story like most Mägo albums, but also for ending up overshadowed by Ilussia after the troubled reception of the in-between cover disc Celtic Land), but it didn't fail at winning the obligatory Gold Disc and high praise, and proved that Zeta was an awesome singer in his own style.
• Epic Riff: Many, obviously.
• Fandom Rivalry:
  • The band used to have a storied relationship with fellow Spanish metal band Saratoga and its leader Leo Jiménez. Initially friendly to each other, a fan war broke out in 2003 when Txus and Jiménez had their own falling out regarding a collaboration in Gaia that never worked out (there are several versions why, the official being that Mägo's manager screwed things up), leading to both sides calling each other names on the press. They bands sorted it out the next year, finally making a collaboration that was the first of many, but some people has still not forgotten it.
  • Naturally, with José Andrëa y Uróboros, as well as Runa Llena, bands formed by ex-Mägo members that left in bad terms. That said, there are still plenty of people who follows all of them.
  • There's a lot of Mägo fans that are also fans of similar Spanish band Saurom, but the opposite is not true. This was best seen during the two bands' collaborations in 2021, in particular when a videoclip of Saurom's "Noche de Halloween" performed by Mägo was uploaded by both official YT channels; the comments section in the Mägo de Oz channel was full of praise to both groups, while the Saurom one showcased several high voted commenters snarking out the typical derisive rethoric towards Mägo.
• Fan Nickname: Those who left the band's fandom with José Andrëa (or who didn't get over his departure in general) are popular and derisively nicknamed "widows" by the rest.
• Germans Love David Hasselhoff: Latin Americans love Mägo de Oz, among other reasons due to the critic treatment of the Spanish conquest of America (not very historically accurate, but who cares about that) the band did in many of their songs. It's telling that while the band has lost a lot of its aura in Spain, Latin America is still its stronghold.
• Growing the Beard: There is no consensus, but La leyenda de la Mancha and especially Gaia are considered Mägo's earliest high points (if not its highest points, period).
• Harsher in Hindsight: The theme of the 2019 album Ira Dei was the end of the world, and its imagery included world plagues and seas of corpses. A year later, the unfortunate coincidence didn't go unnoticed. It was acknowledged by the band themselves with a home made video focusing on social distancing.
• Mis-blamed:
  • Just hours after Mägo released the song "Revolución", many fans accused the band of abandoning metal in favor of pop-rock. Apparently, none of those paid attention on the label that explained that the song was in fact a cover of a pop-rock band, specifically KHY, the one Mägo's vocalist Patricia Tapia leads.
  • A similar case happened with the release of the Ira Dei single "La Cantiga de las Brujas", as many people disliked the song's lyrics (most of them liked the melody, though) and used it to predict the rest of the album would be of similar quality. Actually, the song was a collaboration between Txus and Diego Palacio (former flute player for Mägo, currently leader of the band Celtian), the latter of which wrote the lyrics of the song despite having little experience as a lyricist. You can still fault Txus for allowing him to do so without help, however.
• Replacement Scrappy: There are people who simply would not accept Zeta as the band's vocalist. The jury is still out on Zeta's own replacement Rafa Blas.
• Seasonal Rot: For many people, the band is in this kind of age since José left. This opinion was actually solidified with Celtic Land's failure to take off, however, as few people had bad things to say about Hechizos, pócimas y brujería other than José not being on it. Whether the band has managed to get out or not, and when, are diverse topics.
• Tainted by the Preview: From Ilussia onwards, there's the popular perception that the members of Mägo have become rather bad at the task of choosing which themes will be released as singles. Ira Dei was a great example because its two singles, "La Cantiga de las Brujas" and "Te traeré el horizonte", are generally considered the blandest songs in an otherwise excellent album.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Just everything the band does after José's departure is often automatically labelled by many as a loss of their signature style and a failed experiment. This eventually died off a bit, though.
• Vindicated by History: La Ciudad de los Árboles. At its time, the popular opinion had it as one of the band's worst albums, but José's departure made many people reevaluate it in a better light (rather cynically at it, but still).
• Win Back the Crowd:
  • The Spanish metal scene declared after José left that Mägo was dead and would never be good to listen to again. Then it came Hechizos, pócimas y brujería, which was highly praised by critics, broke selling records (including a Gold Disc) and established Zeta's place in the band. Even the most bitter detractors concede that the album fits exactly Zeta's style and that at least its title song is a solid classic in the band's history.
  • While Ilussia was a convincing hit, not everybody was satisfied with it, and Finisterra Opera Rock, its anniversary followup, set back a lot of what the previous album had achieved. However, after a four-year hiatus, the band came back with a new double album, Ira Dei, which was universally considered terrific.