ANGELS FALL FIRST

Angels Fall First is the debut studio album from Finland´s leading female led symphonic metal act Nightwish. For a short period of time I was very interested in power metal and as Nightwish has elements from that genre in their music ( the characteristic double bass drum parts and neo-classical choice of notes) I was also interested in them. I didn´t listen to Angels Fall First back then though and have only recently been introduced to the album.

After listening to Angels Fall First it´s no surprise that this album sounds pretty much like every other release from the band. Tuomas Holopainen´s symphonic/ neo-classical metal songwriting and Tarja Turunen´s opera vocals is as excellent on this debut as on any of the later releases from the band. Angels Fall First also has some obvious folk elements which are mostly heard in the quiet mellow parts with flute ( played by guest musician Esa Lethinen). All songs is of high compositional quality, but as on most releases from the band the music does become too trivial IMO. Songs like Elvenpath, Angels Fall First and Know Why the Nightingale Sings stand out for me and while all other songs are good as well, they just don ´t stand out as much.

The musicianship is excellent. Tuomas Holopainen is always worth a mention for his excellent compositional skills and his great keyboard playing. He should not sing though as he hasn´t got a very impressive vocal range. You can hear him sing on Beauty And the Beast ( which by the way is a good song) and Astral Romance. Tarja is a hard vocalist to match and he falls flat on his face when he tries.

The production is clean and even though it´s very polished it´s the most raw production the band has had so far.

From looking at the pictures in the booklet it´s very obvious that Nightwish were very young when they recorded Angels Fall First ( I compared the pictures to the pictures on Once. Wow what a difference) and if you remember this, it´s a very impressive album. For me it´s a big 3 star album. Very enjoyable when I´m in the mood, but it happens rarely.