Der Quell des Lebens

Composed mainly of low- and mid-tempo songs with very strong lyrics and great instrument usage, this cd is surely one of the best I have ever heard. Just about all aspects of music (within the metal and gothic genres) can be found on this cd, including some high-tempo things. Especially atmospheric and melodic parts can be found around every corner.

One of the things I am so very fond of on this cd is the vocals. No Pride has three vocalists: one for the grunts; one for clean voice; and the third takes care of the spoken parts.
Another thing about this cd that is great is the artwork. Especially the inlay with the lyrics is very nice. This can be folded out to a poster, showing an enlargement of the cover picture on the front side and the lyrics, members and cd information on the back. Also, the print on the cd looks very good.

The best songs on this cd are: Of love and confidence, die Krähe, sceptic, richtung, … all 9 of them actually. Indeed, 9, not eight; after the 8th song, der quell des lebens, comes another song (with a pause of about 90 seconds between them). I don’t know why, but this song is not on the track list. It could be that they forgot to take it off the cd, but personally I’d suggest keeping it on the cd. Not because this cd has a shortage of good songs, but because any song of this calibre is always welcome.
Now something about a number of specific songs. First of all, “sceptic”: this song is about God, but even anti-Christians shouldn’t skip it. Instead I’d suggest they just don’t listen to the vocals, but only to the music, because it is a great song (especially the beginning and end are beautiful).
Next song: “This in me ...not”. If I had to choose, this would be the best song on the cd. The genre No Pride plays, gothic metal, can best de noticed on this track. The different vocals match each other and the music very well. Te lyrics are great for a (high-)standard gothic song, as is the music. It’s a song one would normally expect from typical gothic bands, but then with only male vocals. The clean voice gets a bit opera-like at some points, but that’s not so strange for a male gothic band. And it fits in very well too.
“der quell des lebens” is also a song about which I’d like to spare a few words. The choir at the beginning of the song is a bit of a shame, but the rest of the song makes up for this without any problem. The sound of water flowing, which comes back throughout the song several times fits very well. To me, it seems like the work of a genius.

As you may have noticed, I like this cd very well. All of the songs are great, though some people might find “sceptic” a little too religious. (But as I said before, I wouldn’t skip it if I were you.) The secret bonus-track is also a nice surprise. And a very welcome one too.

I haven’t heard any other releases by this bad, but if they are as good on those cd's as they are on this one, I would be on cloud nine (extremely happy that is) if I ever got my hand on one of them.

One last remark as a conclusion: If they guys keep on playing the way they do know, I wouldn’t be surprised if they rise from the underground very soon. They surely deserve it!