Children Of The Damned

while all the replys above make sense... im still sticking with my original thoughts that its about a young japanese boy in japan during the atom bombs at hiroshima and nagasaki.....

"he's walking like a small child, but watch his eyes you burn away" -seems small and innocent but he's the enemy

"He's walking like a dead man If he had lived he would have crucified us all"

• he's innocent and walking, doomed... it had to be done though, as 'if he had lived' he would have just been drafted into the imperial army to fight the US

"Now it burns his hand he's turning to laugh Smiles as the flame sears his flesh Melting his face screaming in pain Peeling the skin from his eyes"

• Le` bomb has strucketh

" he's dust on the ground what have we learned"

• so senseless... this is humanity today

"your backs against the wall you turn into the light"

• when the bomb hit, it emitted a blinding light

... "like candles watch them burn"

SO in conclusion fellow maiden fans... this is why i think its about the atom bomb in japan- a little boy getting killed by it

good song, great band

'Arry liked to write lots of songs off of concepts he's read or seen (Murders in the Rue Morgue, Phantom of the Opera, Flight of Icarus) so he takes the premise or the basic story structure of a certain aspect while leaving out the other details (Like Phantom of the Opera is strictly about a guy who kills people at the opera house, none of the extra story or Murders is about the innocent foreign guy being chased for murder and not the rest of the Poe story)

This is the same basic set up, he takes the children being blown up/burned in the house at the end of Village of the Damned and wrote a song strictly around that but kind of gave it a burned at the stake vibe instead of demon children being blown up with a bomb for literary reasons (You can describe being burned, you can't really describe a bomb detonation except for "It went boom")

One of the best songs off of "The Number of the Beast" and one of my favorites. One of the first Maiden songs I heard and I was not disappointed. It's an all around kick ass song. It's based on the movie of the same name, "Children of the Damned".

geil hehe =)

Definetly one of the best songs off of one of the best metal albums ever.

Dark, and haunting, I used to think Bruce was hugely overated as a vocalist, but this song put me in my place.

It's based on a campy 70s horror film of the same name. Great song though.

Great song. Really atmospheric. I think it might be about the children of today who are being born into a cruel world dominted by money etc. Really cool song.

My favorit Maiden song, I can't explain why, it just rocks! And to think this is a track, where there's being sung. It's so great!

This song is based on the movie of the same name, the film is about 6 children with psychic powers who are opposed by the human race. This song describes the fate of the last child, whom the humans are going to burn, the last verse discribes his death. This is a very powerful song and is the soul reason that I bought the number of the beast.

it sounds like metallica's unforgiven II