Description
CD in mediabook. Follow-up to the successful first D-Day album, released in September 2019, to mark the 75th Anniversary of Operation Market Garden. Where that album focussed on the hardship of D-Day and consecutive battles, D-Day II puts the emphasis on the psychological strain the war had on the soldiers upon returning home after the end of World War II.
Musically the album continues in the somewhat heavier vein of the previous one featuring new singer Jan Willem Ketelaers (Ayreon). The song 'Peace of Mind' is the second track of the new Knight Area album 'D-Day II - The Final Chapter'. Our intention with D-DAY II - The Final Chapter is to highlight multiple sides of the war and liberation from then until now. We want to emphasize less the war itself with this album, but more the man behind the soldier. In 'Peace of Mind' we tell the story of the man, not the soldier.
"I Believe" is perhaps even the most socially critical one. It openly asks the question whether we are heading in the right direction with our world. Have we learned enough from the past? The track literally symbolizes and states whether the liberators of that time did not give their lives for nothing....... "The Dream" is about the soldiers who had to leave home; had to leave their loved ones to fight in a savage landscape. They left their dreams and ideals behind to help realize the ideals and dreams of others. Many of them were eventually able to make their dreams or parts of them come true; others weren't.
In "The Journey Home" the journey is described in a figurative sense. After returning home, in many cases there was no opportunity for the soldiers to tell their story, no respect; in many cases people didn't want to know anything more about the war, but were purely focused on the future. It cost many of the veterans a large part of their lives. Fortunately, from later years after the war, more and more respect and appreciation came for these soldiers and there are also many who could have peace at some point and leave the war behind.
