The band formed officially Kitee, Finland, in 1996. He began as an experiment in sound Holopainen, using keyboard, acoustic guitar and voice by Tarja Turunen. At that time the members of the group were three: Tuomas Holopainen, Tarja Turunen and Erno "Emppu" Vuorinen (guitar). The name Nightwish (Wish Night) is one of the songs from their first demo, which contained Nightwish The Forever Moments and Etiäinen. The latter appears in slightly different version in the official discography as part of the song Lappi, final suite of Angels Fall First.
early 1997 Jukka Nevalainen joined the band to play drums. The acoustic guitar was replaced by a power supply. In April of that year they recorded seven songs, which can be found in a limited edition of Angels Fall First.
In May of that year signed a contract with the Finnish label Spinefarm Records for three albums. Angels Fall First was released in November, and reached the 31st position in Finland. A single called The Carpenter had already left earlier, and peaked at number 8 in the singles chart in Finland. This first work of the band has songs based more on melody than on speed, differing from the next disc.
