Lyric discussion by JASGripen 

Cover art for Black Planet lyrics by Sisters of Mercy, The

You can be pretty sure that it is about the third world war. the eighties were all about it. We who grow up then, lived with the nuclear holocaust as a reality, with the newest numbers of warheads presented almost daily in the papers.

The likely scenario was Battlefield Europe, with both parts fighing it out in Europe, devasteting the continent in the process, both parts reluctant to bomb the other sides homeland due to M.A.D. (Mutual Assured Destruction). That is why Europe are mentioned specifically in the text.

But Eldritch had apparently (for very good reasons) that the nuclear waste and of course the constant winter predicted as an effect of a A-war would not encompass USA as well.

In short, that is why Europe is specifically mentioned but why death seems to reign in USA as well.

Ohh.. the song. It is a very good one, not Sister's best, but among them.