In Flanders Fields 

I remember the battlefield -the trenches and the mud and cold
the dead man´s rats in no man´s land -no one in here is getting very old

I remember the yellow cloud (*1) and the panic of the fleeing crowd
men mired in a shell hole - as they launch another attack
 
(Chorus :)
In Flanders Fields where the poppies grow so red
where soldiers die - side by side -under a foreign sky
In Flanders Fields only poppies could survive
Half a million men gave their life - half a million young men came to die
 
 to conquer the nearest hill - to break out from the (*2) salient
so high the stakes - so dear the cost
as I watch another man fall
 
Chorus
 
Christmas brought a miracle (*3)- a little bit of peace
putting a face on the enemy -these blokes all have a name
 
Billy, Guillaume or Wilhelm - (*4) these guys are in it just like me ..
Now it´s getting cold - it´s getting dark
 as I lay here dying ...(*5)

guitar solo (*6)

Chorus X 2

Music and Lyrics : Geert Fieuw

“In Flanders Fields” appears on :

“Demo 2004-2005”

musicians on this recording :

Jo De Boeck - vocals

Geert Fieuw - guitars, keyboards

Yann De Ceuckelaire - bass

Daniel Flores - drums

“Signs” (2005)

musicians on this recording :

Jo De Boeck - vocals

Geert Fieuw - guitars, keyboards

Fréderic Ost - lead guitar and cello

Bart Rokegem - bass

Danny Focke - keyboards

Daniel Flores - drums (same drum part as on demo)

A Radio Edit (shortened version) was released as
a radio single on October 1st 2005 prior to

the release of the full “Signs” album

(*1) the first poison gas attack

(*2) Ypres Salient

(*3) The Christmas Truce, in 1914

(*4) 3 times the same name, in English, French and German

(*5) During his last moments the dying solider recalls it all.

(*6)  guitar solo played by Geert Fieuw on the demo 2004-2005 version, by Fréderic Ost on the “Signs” version 

Geert :  ‘ When people are looking for inspiration, they just have to look around, to their history, to what happened in their region. This goes especially for Flanders, always Europe's battlefield ...

the iconoclasts ? the spanish inquisition ? it all happened here ....  

One day I may even write a song about the missing piece of Van Dyck's “Lamb Of God" ....

Looking back, the lyrics are not only inspired by the famous "In Flanders Fields" poem by John McCrae

(even including the apostrophe error - Grammatically, "In Flanders' Fields" would be more correct)

but also by Rimbaud's  "Le Dormeur Du Val"

I wrote these lyrics not only because my family comes from the region, which had become one of the poorest in Europe after The Great War, but also to prove that intelligent "metal" and "hard rock" lyrics can be written - in stead of the typical macho call-for-war adrenalin-fed hero-praising lyrics.

We show the human side, the common man that suffers regardless of his nationality or origin.

Personally I prefer the more melancholic, less bombastic version of the original takes. Nowadays the keyboard parts have been rearranged to reflect the keyboard parts of the 2004 version, with the cello parts of the “Signs” version on top of it. ‘