Iron Maiden have just released a music video for the new song "The Writing on the Wall."

The long-anticipated track is the first new song from the metal legends since releasing 2015's The Book of Souls and comes in the wake of a cryptic teaser campaign that whipped fans worldwide into a frenzy as they frantically tracked down every possible clue in search of a greater significance to it all.

It had been suspected a new album was in the works as early as 2019, but more concrete hints didn't begin to materialize until the spring of this year, where flyers for "Belshazzar's Feast" began appearing in tandem with the letters 'WOTW' and wordplay based off this acronym (which we now can confirm stands for "Writing on the Wall") that inundated Maiden's social media and elsewhere.

Singer Bruce Dickinson later made a television appearance while wearing a shirt bearing the same design and, one week before the big announcement, he stood in a theater balcony and invited Maiden fans to attend 'Belshazzar's Feast' on July 15.

See our breakdown of the clues here.

The story of Belshazzar's Feast is taken from the Book of Daniel in the Bible and is the origin of the everyday "to see the writing on the wall" phase, meaning that one is aware of certain events that are imminent.

Naturally, this imminence connected well with Maiden's first new song in six years, which can be heard below. Find out the meaning behind "The Writing on the Wall" here and click here for fan reactions to Maiden's new track.

"The Writing on the Wall" was written by Dickinson and guitarist Adrian Smith, with Kevin 'Caveman' Shirley once again behind the boards on production with bassist Steve Harris co-producing as well.

Regarding the animated video in collaboration with Pixar's Mark Andrews and Andrew Gordon and London-based BlinkInk animation studios, Dickinson commented, "I had a pretty clear idea of the concept to accompany the song and when I met Mark and Andrew, on Zoom, it quickly became clear we were all very much on the same wavelength, and this was reinforced with the addition of Nicos and his young BlinkInk team. Our weekly team Zoom meetings were then usually both highly creative and a lot of fun!"

"I’m very proud of the way the video turned out," the singer continued, "it’s more like a mini-film really. I knew it was going to work out as soon as Mark brought my treatment to life with his incredible storyboards - I thought we could make something very special together. I think we did and hope our fans will agree. In fact it’s pretty much created by Maiden fans!!"

Director Nicos Livesey added, "We quickly found the expertise we wanted, and people were literally throwing themselves at me to work on a Maiden video – we had more than 60 people in 13 countries from Brazil to France, & Romania to the U.S.A. to add something to the clip and I’d say their love, passion and understanding of the band shines through every frame. They were a dream team for the producers and myself to manage."

Iron Maiden, "The Writing on the Wall"

EMI
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