Article by John
“Angels Fall First” is the first Nightwish album, and is my least favourite full length Nightwish album by an absolute mile. Compared to their other albums it sounds a bit amateurish - the standard of the production and playing is perhaps understandably nowhere near the standard of their amazing follow up album “Oceanborn”. This is also, thankfully, the only album in which keyboard and songwriting maestro Tuomas does any vocals on, and you won't believe me when I tell you about just how bad they are until you hear it for yourself. They really are hilariously bad, and so are some of the lyrics. Tarja's voice is also much less powerful and less developed than on later albums as well. Sounds pretty bad, doesn't it? Amazingly it isn't. There is a hint of the band that they would later become scattered throughout the album, plus a certain atmosphere, a wistfulness, that is unique to this album and not found on later Nightwish albums to the same degree. I find it quite enjoyable actually, but that said it is the album that gets the least number of votes in any "favourite Nightwish album" poll, and is most definitely not the album that you would give someone who you were trying to persuade that Nightwish were the best band ever.
“Angels Fall First” is actually their 2nd demo tape recorded by themselves just for fun, with a few more songs added. They sent it to a few places and didn't get a single reply. One magazine reviewed it and dismissed it with the now famous words "No Commercial Potential". Fortunately for us, the head of Spinefarm records heard it and disagreed.
This was their very first attempt at being a metal band, after giving up on what they originally intended to do, which was acoustic mood music, and the title track and the epic 10 minute long song Lappi are still almost entirely acoustic mood music. Much more Enya than Metal - for all of the title track and most of “Lappi” there are not even any drums - just keyboards, acoustic guitar and Tarja. It took me a few listens to get into those songs, in fact it took me a good few listens to get into anything on the album at all if I were to be honest. They are quite good to listen to as mellow background music when you are in the mood to chill out, but it is almost impossible to believe that a metal band could possibly have been responsible for them.Their first single “The Carpenter” has the same mellowness in the verses (which Tuomas sings ), but with a heavier chorus sung by Tarja.
The 2 best songs on the album (“Elvenpath” and “Beauty and the Beast”) suffer on this album from both being done live on “From Wishes to Eternity” and sounding at least 1000000 times better there than on this album. “Astral Romance” I think is a pretty good song - I love the guitar riff that opens it, and especially when it is reprised at the end - very powerful I think. “Tutankhamen” is a pretty weird song with an appropriately eastern sounding melody.
There is an absolutely hilarious scene in the “End of Innocence” DVD when Tuomas is appalled at just how bad the lyrics to “Nymphomaniac Fantasia” are. The song is OK if you haven't heard any other Nightwish songs, a description that may also apply to “Know how the Nightingale sings”, which is a precursor of what they would do 100 times better in “Oceanborn”.
There are 2 bonus tracks appear on some versions that are actually imo 2 of the best songs from the album – “A Return to the Sea” which is a fun song with whimsical lyrics like "Giant spiders learn how to swim, with whales they form a united kin", and “Once Upon a Troubadour” - a folky song that doesn't sound even a little bit like Nightwish. This has the distinction of being the ony song where I don't actually mind Tuomas's vocals, and the contrast when Tarja comes in on the chorus works very well.
I hope that I haven't given the impression that I don't like this album, because I do, but I just don't consider it to be as good as their later work. There are times when I play this album and it just clicks, and there are other times when it just doesn't. From this little acorn a mighty oak tree did grow. Easy to say now, and maybe it is because I heard “Oceanborn” and “Wishmaster” first, but I do hear hints of the greatness to come in this album. It actually is very impressive considering that most of the album is a demo that was recorded on a budget more for fun than for world domination by a bunch of kids who were very inexperienced. Some of it sounds very twee and naive, but it still does have a certain charm and makes me smile, but then comes along a bit that is catchy or powerful. I think that if I had been in charge of Spinefarm records and got this demo that I would have signed the band.
