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Links: - Band Logo - Google Video Search - Official Bebo - Official Myspace - Official Website - Official Youtube - Century Media Records - Spinefarm Records Review information: - Release length: 51:43 - Review posted on April 13th, 2010 |
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Review
Originally, Angels Fall First was made available as a hung numbered lot of five hundred copies, but eventually made it's way to mass production, and then found it's way to the USA. Many, to this day, proclaim this release to be Nightwish's finest hour, which in some cases it's true. Angels Fall First is a great first full-length release, but does it really live up to all the praise it has been receiving? When you really sit down and look at Angels Fall First, it's a superbly composed album that brings in almost an element of opera through the progression of the album. The way the songs progress, and the vocals used through most, it becomes clear that this is meant to be somewhat of a conceptual piece, taking lyrics from J.R.R. Tolkien lore and other fantastical feats to weave some interested tracks that sometimes come with unimpressive narrations and uninspiring duets. "Elvenpath" does a great job at kicking off the album on a very strong note with a highly energetic track and amazing clean operatic vocals. It's just sad that the album will so quickly shift, as "Beauty of the Beast" is a little too drawn out and features some deep narration as if the speaker is possessed, not fitting the music at all, as well as some weak male vocals that also come to play during the slow, ballad/duet track "The Carpenter", which is easily the weakest track off the album, featuring nothing impressive at all, as well as some extremely simple keyboard notes that seem to randomly appear in the background for almost no reason. The overall tone of the album is really set by the heavier tracks that focus more on solo singing, such as the aforementioned "Elvenpath", as well as the title track "Angels Fall First", and the very Egyptian meets elvish-ambience "Tutankhamen", that really display the abilities that this band has musically to make a rather traditionally built Metal track and make it border on the grounds of epic through storytelling and operatic backgrounds. The only problem with this is that there are plenty of slower paced songs on here that simply just don't stack up against these more epic-sounding tracks. The only track on here that moves at a slower pace that could fall into that clumping would be the closing "Lappi" four track opus, which isn't that bad a track at all, but can actually become a bit boring after a while due to the slow paced simple acoustic guitar chords, leaving the song to be a bit of a blunder, no matter how dramatic they try to make it. It is clear that Nightwish have what it takes to push the boundaries of Metal with this release, but, sadly, Angels Fall First is not all that impressive an album. The band seems to try to build an epic setting to their music, but all the while utilizing many simplicities that simply draw the album down. From the lackluster backing male vocals, to the bland early learning guitar stage chords utilized, Angels Fall First winds up relying on one thing: the operatic vocals of Tarja Turunen. This, really, is the only stand out element to the group outside of the more harder hitting and faster paced tracks, which really seem to be non-existent. Had Angels Fall First been comprised of more tracks like "Elvenpath" or "Tutankhamen", and less like "The Carpenter", then this review would have gone a completely different way. But, instead, much of the album comes off as dull thanks to the band trying to incorporate too many generic fantastical elements into a ground breaking idea. |
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