Angels Fall First [Digipak] - Nightwish > Reviews > Angels, they fell first...

Author's product rating:   

Originality	Definitely a cut above the rest
Lyrics	Standard
Quality and consistency of tracks	Mixed
How does it compare to the artist's other releases	Average
Value for Money	Good

Advantages:	Some old favourites, brilliant first album
Disadvantages:	very raw, not as polished as later albums (not necessarily a 'disadvantage' ! )

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

..."But I'm still here". OK, not technically the same album (line is from End of All Hope, from Century Child), but a good link, I feel. :)

Nightwish are a Finnish metal band. Their debut album, "Angels Fall First" was first released in 1996, but the digipak was released in 2002, along with all previous albums to Century Child.

As far as debut albums go, this is pretty good, I think. It feels like the opening act to something great - you get a teaser of what they can do, but their talent and ability is still very raw and untapped.

There are a few songs on "Angels..." that are still firm favourites with the band's fans - such as "Beauty and the Beast", which is performed on the album by [former] singer Tarja Turunen and Tuomas (keyboards). I have heard this performed live, with Tony Kakko from Sonata Arctica doing the male voal part instead of Tuomas (who hated singing on "Angels..." so much he vowed never to sing on their albums again!).

Tuomas' voice - as he sings all the male vocal parts on this album - aren't the best. As I mentioned above, he never wants to sing on another Nightwish album again...and I'm not alone in thinking that this is probably for the best! Although, you do have to credit him for trying - it takes guts to do that, knowing that everyone who buys the album will be aware of how good - or bad - your performance is!

But where he lacks in vocal talent, Tuomas more than makes up for in keyboards. He is a superbly talented keyboardist, and puts so much passion and emotion into performing that you can total lose yourself in the music and in the feeling. Even on this raw and unpolished debut, there is still raw feeling and emotion, something that never leaves Nightwish's music.

This isn't all Tuomas's doing though - the band at this point consisted of guitarist Emppu Vuorinen (who I think may also have done the bass on this album), Tuomas Holopainen on keyboards, Jukka Nevalainen on drums and Tarja Turunen on vocals. Bassist Sami Vanska joined them in 1998 (then was later replaced by Tarot's Marco Hietala). Overall, they come together wonderfully.

Admittedly, I don't think this is their best album by any means - even on the second album "Oceanborn" you can hear a huge improvement on the quality of the music and production. But this *is* a great debut album - you could do a lot worse from other bands, even within the same genre of metal.

If I was recommending a Nightwish album to someone interested in what their music is like, I would probably direct them to "Wishmaster" or "Once" in the first instance, but for those who like to start at the beginning - "Angels Fall First" is only a taste of what follows...like I said at the start of this review, it is just like a teasing opening which draws you in and seduces you in the most wonderful way.