ANGELS FALL FIRST

When the early acoustic demo went nowhere commercially, the core of NIGHTWISH dusted themselves off and decided to try one more time, adding drummer Jukka Nevalainen and allowing Emppu Vuorinen to get an electric guitar, which they hopefully paid for. The result is the embryonic NIGHTWISH album, a glance back to the originally conceived folk route and a tentative push towards the overwrought symphonic metal that would propel them to worldwide stardom. As a result, it's not entirely satisfying, with a multitude of decent ideas that coalesce into only a few superb tracks and a gaggle of "nice enough" numbers that don't quite gel. For instance, while "The Carpenter" and the title track are exhilarating, "Tutenkhamen" and "Beauty and the Beast" would have been more searing and seething in the hands of a more mature group. Even the at times gorgeous suite "Lappi" never quite matches its first couple of parts in the later stages, apart from about a half minute of virtuosic acoustic guitar. This is still a keystone in the band's development but it's just not devilishly fun enough for me.