Review Summary: This is the root album from which the later majesty of Nightwish sprung; it isn't as easy to get into, but an excellent addition to their impressive catalogue nonetheless, and a worthy album.
Nightwish is a band that really needs no introduction. Anyone into metal has heard of these guys (and a girl until recently), be it for good or for worse, and most will recognise the influence they had on other bands in their genre.
The original Nightwish was acoustic, I have heard their first demo and it features no electric guitars at all, just awesome acoustic songs. That was what this album came to be based upon, until Tuomas decided that electric guitars would fit better with this band's intentions, and since Tuomas' will is law in this band (and for good reason I may add; if there is one good metal songwriter it is Mr Holopainen), it came to pass upon a day that electric guitars were featured in the final recording of their debut album, Angels Fall First.
I'm not going to do a track by track review, the other reviews feature these already, but I will highlight the most important songs here, and use them as an example to describe why this album is actually one of their best albums.
One feature of this album is that it really is raw Nightwish. It doesn't have any majesty, it is a modest effort for these Finns, who later took their symphonic elements a little over the top on the Once album. Good examples of this are songs like Beauty And The Beast, The Carpenter, and Astral Romance. Tuomas delivers the male vocals, and he doesn't sound as heavy as Marco (or the guest singers), but he sounds pure, and light-hearted, and overall he isn't that bad except when his notes are off (don't worry Tuomas; you've braved your worst fears.) He is actually quite good on Beauty and the Beast.
The aforementioned song is the highlight of this album, and overall one of the best tracks Nightwish have ever done. The guitars work really well, Tuomas' keyboard effects really help the song up, overall it's top notch songwriting, and Tarja's English isn't annoying on this song, you can understand what she's saying and that's a good thing because I really have problems getting what the lyrics are through her vocals sometimes because of her accent. It's full of time changes, awesome growled vocals, it's catchy, it's everything you could want in a Nightwish song. It also isn't pure power metal in the sense that it is senseless instrument bashing; these guys can actually play their instruments.
Nymphomaniac Fantasia is another good song, with an acoustic intro and what I think is a flute, leading into a kickass riff by Emppu Vuorinen. The song trails off a little towards the end, but still, this is worth it just for that little guitar riff at the beginning. It's so lovable. And the lyrics are really cool too; the way Tarja sings "Deeper shall be the wound between your legs" is just enthralling (although if this song had been on Once, let Marco sing that. :D)
Tutankhamen is really catchy with its Egyptian-sounding intro, the song draws you in and keeps you hooked. The guitar riffing is really nice, and it goes really well with the song.
I tend to find the Lappi songs quite boring, but that's just me I guess. They really aren't that bad, they just don't hold your attention like Beauty And The Beast does. They just haven't got that X-factor that some Nightwish songs have, I guess. Elvenpath has a nice spoken intro section, which leads into a heavy riff, and it features male spoken vocals that represent excerpts from the Lord Of The Rings, which, not incidentally, is also what the song is about.
Emppu also plays the bass on this album, which isn't really noticeable, but it works I guess. The guitars are layered thickly over them, but who cares; he's not a natural bass player and he does a decent enough job. Jukka, the drummer, doesn't just whack the double bass drum either; he uses decent enough rhythms that go with the song instead of senselessly whacking around. It's good to see the influence Tuomas has on his band-mates; you can really see that he is ORCHESTRATING the songs, not just writing them and letting people go ahead. There is a real structure in Nightwish songwriting, and that's one thing that is really necessary in metal bands; they have to sound well and keep your attention and have a real structure and musicality, otherwise most bands just degrade into what I would call "senseless noise." Not so for Nightwish.
The vocals aren't as good as on later albums, though, so beware if that is what draws you into Nightwish; Tarja isn't as good here as she is on, say, Century Child. You can really tell she is new to the English language. Also Tuomas butchers Astral Romance with his vocals, which really sound way off-pitch. This is an album for the musicality of the instruments and not the vocals.
Because it's so raw and different from later Nightwish albums, this can be a difficult album to get into. It was the first Nightwish album I really started to listen to in full, after having heard bits and pieces of other albums, and I can honestly say I enjoyed the listen, it just takes a while to get used to this style of playing, and therefore I recommend that if you are into the trademark Nightwish sound, you don't get this album: Get Oceanborn or Wishmaster, and get Century Child or Once. (So you have an album from their two styles of playing; the first two are more Power Metal oriented, while the latter two are more symphonically oriented.) However this really is a good album, and if you are a Nightwish fan, I would still get this album, as it is an enjoyable listen and has some excellent tracks among its contents which are classics of the Nightwish catalogue.
In short: if you are new, try something else; if you know the style of the band, get this, and stand amazed, for this is their root album from which all the rest of their magic sprung like blossoming flowers in otherwise dead gardens with the primroses paths covered in weed. (Ignore the pun.) I really enjoy the album, and if you're up for a different Nightwish, this album is your best bet.
