Crying for Help VIII

Crying for Help is a numbered series that runs through Arena's first two albums, parts one to four on Songs from the Lion's Cage and five to eight on Pride, set between the longer songs. Part eight is the album's eighth track and comes just before the closing Sirens. Like all of Pride it is credited to Nolan and Pointer, and it was recorded at Thin Ice Studios in Virginia Water between May and August 1996, with Paul Wrightson singing.

Reviewing the album in November 1996, Jurriaan Hage found it slow and touching, "a very sad one with Bel Canto singing". Sputnikmusic's Mykhailo Pervushyn thought the second half of the suite still mostly good, if less hard-hitting than the first, and noted an a cappella passage within it.

Afterlife

In April 1997 the band reworked the series as a theme and variations on The Cry EP, mixing original and new versions with fresh material on the same idea. On stage, setlist.fm logs only parts one, four and seven, and part seven is the most played song in Arena's history. The upload in the hypersongs web is the album version, from the 2014 digital release of Pride.