I'd consider it fairly similar to the distinction between Java and the JVM, yes, in that the JVM technically has more power than the Java language exposes. There's multiple levels, with different powers.
You're not going to be able to draw a sharp line here where Go is somehow on one side of it and most other languages aren't. In a sense the entire point of a "language" in the first place is to provide various bits of "magic" to make your life easier. For instance, you can't implement your own exceptions system, because the compiler hooks in at a deeper level than you can get to. (In both cases you can probably do it via what are technically platform-specific hacks, but I wouldn't say that you've implemented it in the language.) The only language with "no magic" is pure assembler, with either no macros or at least no predefined macros.
You're not going to be able to draw a sharp line here where Go is somehow on one side of it and most other languages aren't. In a sense the entire point of a "language" in the first place is to provide various bits of "magic" to make your life easier. For instance, you can't implement your own exceptions system, because the compiler hooks in at a deeper level than you can get to. (In both cases you can probably do it via what are technically platform-specific hacks, but I wouldn't say that you've implemented it in the language.) The only language with "no magic" is pure assembler, with either no macros or at least no predefined macros.