Review Summary: On a scale of one to ten, Angels Fall First is a solid “oh honey…”
Angels Fall First is the sort of debut album that simultaneously reflects humble beginnings and broad ambitions. While there are traces of Nightwish’s earliest origins playing campfire folk, they were pioneering a brand of symphonic metal that emphasized colorful keyboard flourishes, power metal-tinged guitar work, operatic soprano lead vocals, and a wistful wintery atmosphere overseeing it all. Given that the album was essentially a repurposed demo, it’s clear that these innovations also came with some serious growing pains.
While the musicians had the chops to make due on this promising style, they clearly weren’t all the way there yet. Keyboardist Tuomas Holopanien’s incorporation of piano and other orchestral patches is tasteful enough and Emppu Vuorinen’s guitar offers exuberant chugs and pleasant acoustics, but there’s a certain stiffness that keeps them from hitting a truly confident stride. Tarja Turunen no doubt established her talents early and was already turning heads with some of her acrobatics, but a lacking sense of control compared to subsequent efforts reinforces an inexperienced youthful veneer.
This uncertainty is perhaps best exemplified by Holopanien’s infamous attempts at male co-vocals. While his keys may be the band’s most solid asset behind Turunen, his almost mumbled tenor could very well be one of the most self-conscious performances ever recorded. You can just imagine him slumping behind his instrument and shamefully looking down every time he sings. I actually don’t mind how it reinforces the desperation on “Beauty and the Beast, but the back half of “Astral Romance” feels even more meandering and lead single “The Carpenter” goes from underwhelming to actively tuneless. I feel bad for tearing into him like this even though he’s owned up to these sorts of criticisms; it’s no wonder he left these parts to other men going forward.
From there, the songwriting also reflects a wide variety of ideas without the focus to properly see all of them through. There are intriguing concepts like the escalating duet on “Beauty and the Beast” and cool segments like the trade-off solos on “Know Why the Nightingale Sings,” but the overall structures lack the cohesion to make them truly substantial. Elsewhere, the folky four-part “Lapland” suite never quite comes together and “Nymphomaniac Fantastia” has the perfect mix of directionless atmospherics and fumbled eroticism to make it the musical equivalent of the embarrassing things you did when you were thirteen that still haunt you at night decades later…
But for all these misfires, there is an endearing spirit that makes it fun to listen to and there are a couple genuinely great songs that remind one of why Nightwish was a band worth watching. Spoken word camp aside, the opening “Elvenpath” establishes an upbeat power metal template for subsequent numbers to follow and the title track is the best demonstration of the band’s folk roots in action. “Tutankhamen” is the most put-together track of the lot with its epic metal hooks and guest flute flourishes.
On a scale of one to ten, Angels Fall First is a solid “oh honey…”
Its rootsy approach to symphonic metal still feels unique twenty-five years later and it’s easy to see the ingredients that would make Nightwish truly stand out on subsequent outings. But while contemporaries like their fellow Finns in Children of Bodom would put their untapped talents toward more unhinged executions, it’s clear that Nightwish was already aiming for something more mature but lacked the tools to make it work. It’s one of those weird albums that evens out by virtue of offering greatness and flimsiness in equal measure and is enough to remind one of their own earliest artistic attempts. Everybody’s gotta start somewhere but anybody looking to check out Nightwish ought to start elsewhere.
