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''Angels Fall First'' is the debut album of Finnish symphonic metal band Nightwish. It was released in 1997 by Spinefarm Records. The limited edition (of which only 500 copies were released), features only seven tracks, two of which are not on the regular edition. As of December 2009, ''Angels Fall First'' has sold more than 36,000 copies in Finland alone.

''Angels Fall First'' is very different from the later releases. It is much more folk metal and acoustic oriented than its successors. Its folky sound is also more or less reduced on later albums. Even though the only single, "The Carpenter", reached number three on the Finnish singles chart, Nightwish failed to gain national fame until the release of their second studio album, ''Oceanborn''.

The male vocals heard on "Beauty and the Beast", "The Carpenter", "Astral Romance" and "Once Upon a Troubadour" are sung by keyboardist–co-founder Tuomas Holopainen, as well as the whispers in the beginning of the demo version of "Etiäinen". Following this release, Holopainen never sang on an album again, because he thought that he was not good enough. However, he provided some of the background sounds on "Moondance" of the second album ''Oceanborn'' and on "Master Passion Greed" of the sixth album ''Dark Passion Play''.

"Elvenpath" features audio clips from the prologue of ''The Lord of the Rings'', directed by Ralph Bakshi. The track on the limited edition is the same track that was on their second demo, which was also titled ''Angels Fall First''. "Erämaajärvi" remained the only Nightwish song in Finnish until "Kuolema Tekee Taiteilijan" (2004) and "Erämaan Viimeinen" (2007). "Etiäinen" has no published lyrics. - Wikipedia