Angels Fall First is the debut studio album by the Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish, originally released by Spinefarm Records on 30 September 1997 as a 500-copy limited edition. This edition is highly sought after by collectors and in 2012 a copy was sold for $1137.23 on eBay. It was subsequently released to the general public on 1 November, with four additional songs. The album was released in the US by Century Media in March 2001.

Angels Fall First is a power metal album with gothic, folk and classical elements. In a 2008 interview with the British magazine Kerrang!, Tuomas Holopainen remembered:

The original pressing featured Holopainen's home contact address, an accident from reprinting the demo sleeve for the album.

The band, and especially band leader and keyboardist Tuomas Holopainen has since frowned upon the album, considering it essentially an extended demo. In a 2011 interview, when asked what album other than Imaginaerum Holopainen wanted to make into a movie, he replied that it would be Angels Fall First, and that it would be "a black-and-white comedy".

The male vocals heard on "Beauty and the Beast", "The Carpenter", "Astral Romance" and "Once Upon a Troubadour" are sung by keyboardist–band leader Tuomas Holopainen, as well as the whispers in the beginning of the demo version of "Etiäinen". Following this release, Holopainen never sang credited on an album again, because he thought that he was not good enough.

Nightwish

  • Tarja Turunen – vocals
  • Tuomas Holopainen – keyboards, male vocals (on track 2, 3, 4 & "Once Upon a Troubadour"), arrangements
  • Emppu Vuorinen – guitars, bass
  • Jukka Nevalainen – drums, percussion

Additional musician

  • Esa Lehtinen – flute

Production

  • Tero Kinnunen – engineering, mixing, recording
  • Mika Jussila – mastering
  • Garry Black – cover photo
  • Toni Härkönen – photography

Charts

{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"

! scope="col"| Chart (1998)

! scope="col"| Peak<br />position

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{| class="wikitable sortable plainrowheaders"

! scope="col"| Chart (2022)

! scope="col"| Peak<br />position

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Certifications

Notes

References

Bibliography

  • Nightwish's Official Website