Brighter Than a Thousand Suns

The above version of the lyrics contain errors as I have the sleeve insert right now in front of me. The song is about the progression and possible future of atomic weapons.

"Iron fingers stab the sky...on it's tower, ready to fall" describes hundreds of early atomic weapons tests in which bombs were suspended on steel towers for above ground desert testing.

E=MC^2 relates to direct energy-to-mass conversion formula made famous by Einstein obviously. However the lyrics mention a Robert instead. Robert Oppenheimer led the Manhattan Project.

The part that segways into the future is the "cold fusion and fury" line. We have fission and fusion nuclear capabilities, but cold fusion is a debatable (even dubious) principle which has no scientific validity as of today.

The last verse deals with "bombers launch with no recall" and the rest of that verse is pretty obvious what will happen in this grim prediction of the future.

This section gives me the shivers

Bombers launched with no recall Minute warning of the missile fall Take a look at your last day Guessing you won’t have the time to cry

Ironed Maidens: There is no Robert in the Bible. The name originated in proto-Germanic.

"Robert" is most likely Julius Robert Oppenheimer, who headed the team who designed the first nuclear test and was greatly troubled by what he was doing.

The title of the song comes from a line from the Bhagavad Gita that Oppenheimer said he recalled as he watched the Trinity explosion: "If the radiance of a thousand suns were to burst at once into the sky, that would be like the splendour of the mighty one". He also quoted "Now I have become Death, the destroyer of worlds".

Seems the concept of "playing god" with nuclear weapons is based on Oppenheimer's ideas.

The "iron fingers" are not missiles, they are the steel pylons they built in the desert, both to hold the warhead (simulating an above-ground explosion), and to support the cameras and other instruments used.

I think it's "raze [destroy] a city" not "raise a city", but if it is "raise" then I think it refers to the large-scaled mockups of cities that were built for later tests to see what the Bomb did to buildings. Some of these even had human-shaped dummies inside - really creepy.

Also, might "We will feel the pain of his beginning" be about the vengeful old-testament God?

great song about the atomic bomb, great album aswell. 10/10

"Holy father we have sinned"

Very much about how we will destroy ourselves with our own creations, with our own science, with our own synthetic gods.

Bruce Dickinson said that this song likens the nuclear bomb to man trying to play God. There are actually a lot of double meanings in the lyrics of this song, such as "Trinity reformed". In Christianity, "Trinity" is a collective term refering to God, Jesus and the Holy Ghost, and it was also the name of the site where the first full scale nuclear weapons test was ever held in 1945. Genius, as always...

These lyrics are all wrong. I really wish people wouldn't post lyrics unless they have the lyrics sheet from a copy of the album.

"Oh behold the power of the Earth Are your children ready for the fall" is "Oh behold the power of man On its tower, ready for the fall"

"Locking hands together well Raze a city, build a living hell" is "Knocking hands together well Raise a city, build a living hell"

"Out of the universe a strange light is born" is "Out of the universe a strange love is born"

"Yellow sun it's evil twin In the black the winds deliver him We will sleep to souls within At a siege a nuclear gust is riven" is "Yellow sun its evil twin In the black the wings deliver him We will split our souls within Atom seed to nuclear dust is riven"

"Burying our morals and burying our dead Burying our head in the sand E equals MC squared, you can't relate How we made God with our hands" is "Bury your morals and bury your dead Bury your head in the sand E=mc squared you can relate How we made God With our hands"

"Whatever would Robert have said to his God About he made war with the sun E equals MC squared, you can't relate How we made God with our hands" is "Whatever would Robert have said to his God About how we made war with the sun E=mc squared you can relate How we made God With our hands"

"All nations are rising Through acid bells of love and hate Chain medals of Satan Uncertainty led us all to this All nations are raising Through acid bells of love and hate Confusion and fury" is "All nations are rising, Through acid veils of love and hate Chain letters of Satan Uncertainty leads us all to this All nations are rising, Through acid veils of love and hate Cold fusion and fury"

"This body carried 'em down in vain I was preaching of a small prey In the bunkers, where we'll die We're the executioners that lie" is "Divide and conquer while ye may Others preach and others fall and pray In the bunkers where we'll die There the executioners they lie"

"Bombers launched with no recall Minute warning of the missile fall Take a look at your last day Guessing you won’t have the time to cry" is "Bombers launch with no recall Minutes warning of the missile fall Take a look at your last sky Guessing you won't have time to cry"

How many mistakes can you make in one song's lyrics? Did you even listen to the song, let alone look at a copy of the album's booklet?

Bruce says it's about the Manhattan Experiment, and how mankind has become God, being able to destroy the entire world! Maiden is better than ever!!

How dark the world has become and "God"'s divine punishment for it. I have a much better idea in my head to explain this, just can't quite articulate it.

i think that sponge is right; but what about the unholy trinity line- its to long ago for me to recall whether if that could be a referance to the reaction within nuclear fission. three atoms forcibly combined