ANGELS FALL FIRST

Released in 1997, Angels Fall First is an impressive but flawed debut by Finnish symphonic metal superstars Nightwish. This first album did not actually yet squarely fall in the symphonic metal genre they will eventually help create, but it's rather a concoction of several different influences, including symphonic and operatic metal, but also folk metal, power metal and a certain fondness for Broadway musical plays. There is a lot to like, but also many rough edges that should be chalked down to the inexperience of the young Finnish band.

Starting with the positives, the nine songs of this debut album make it already quite clear that Nightwish is a band of immense talents. The technical proficiency of the three musicians involved (Tuomas Holopainen on keyboards, Emppu Vuorinen on bass and gutiars, and Jukka Nevalainen on drums) is astounding. Tuomas' sublime keyboard arrangements are the driving force of the music, but Emppu's guitars offer a more than capable counterpart, whether he resorts to delicate acoustic guitar arpeggios or crunchy metallic riffs. Meanwhile, Jukka is a powerhouse, his drumming inventive, powerful and precise. And then there is Tarja Turunen. A trained classical singer, her operatic vocals are Nightwish's trademark signature and she is one of the best vocalists in this style. Although on this record she still sounds somewhat immature (both in terms of expressivity and in the choice of some of the vocal melodies and arrangements), it is clear that her potential is vast.

The album also shows that Nightwish are a very ambitious band, unafraid to try and carve their own path in the metal musical landscape. The band's ambition to write spacious, progressive compositions is apparent in tracks like "Beauty and the Beast" or the multi-part album closer "Lappi". The ambition to merge the raw power of traditional metal with folk influences, symphonic arrangements, spoken narrations, and operatic vocals is impressive. Indeed, at the time there were no bands that sounded like Nightwish. The closest act in terms of common fondness for the symphonic/operatic influences were perhaps Therion, although the Swedish's band had with very different musical reference points (death metal, doom, thrash) than the Finnish quartet and the two bands do not sound at all like each other.

Alas, at this stage of the band's career, all these ambitions were not yet matched by solid compositional abilities. The various styles are not well amalgamated together on this album, which sounds too fragmented and without a clear identity. The speedy power metal of "Elvenpath" stands in stark contrast with the folkish romanticism of "The Carpenter" or the operatic ballad "Angels Fall First". Their inclusion on the same album feels incongruous and may be partly explained by the fact that these tracks were actually recorded at two different points in time ("The Carpenter" and "Angels Fall First" in April/May 1997, while "Elvenpath" in September 1997). This makes me wonder whether, halfway through the record, Nightwish consciously decided to change the musical coordinates of an album that may have been initially conceived just as a folk metal album with symphonic leanings. Regardless of the reason, the lack of a clear identity is something I find somewhat unsettling about this record.

Another issue I have with the album is that at times the songwriting feels clunky and undeveloped. Most tracks lack a strong melodic identity, which is particularly problematic for the more complex compositions, like "Beauty and the Beast", that would really benefit for one or two melodic hooks to help the listener navigate through the dense material. Moreover, the tracklist is diluted with a few tracks that are unremarkable and flat, and feel a lot like fillers ("Tutankhamen", "Know Why the Nightingale Sings"). And then there are some unfortunate choices of arrangements, especially in the vocal department. The imitation technique Tarja uses on the verse of "Nymphomaniac Fantasia" (that second vocal melody that after a short delay imitates the main melody) and in "Lappi" sounds odd and ruins somewhat two otherwise decent tunes. But the biggest problem are Tuomas Holopainen's vocals, which are just plain poor - there is no other way to describe them. He does not have a bad voice per se, but he has almost no control over it and therefore he is almost always out of tune. Unfortunately, his poor performance literally butchers songs that would have otherwise been decent, like "The Carpenter" and "Astral Romance".

Some people complain about the production, but I actually find it quite fitting. It is raw and slightly unbalanced (the guitars at times dominating the keyboards), but it matches well the rawness of the musical arrangements and the juvenile songwriting.

Overall, Angels Fall First is an endearing debut album that revealed to the world a band of immense potential. It may be raw and undeveloped, but it is nevertheless an impressive musical achievement for a bunch of twenty-years-olds who had big ambitions and fearless dreams, and that soon, very soon, would end up dominating the metal charts for a long time to come.