Iron Maiden are back, back, back! Having teased their comeback with a succession of cunning cryptic clues in recent weeks, the British metal legends have stormed back with their first new music in six years, and their first single since 2016’s Empire Of The Clouds, the thrilling The Writing On The Wall.
Written by guitarist Adrian Smith and vocalist Bruce Dickinson, The Writing On The Wall was produced by Kevin Shirley and co-produced by Maiden bassist and bandleader Steve Harris.
The all-action animated video for The Writing On The Wall was made with the help of two former Pixar executives – and lifelong Maiden fans – Mark Andrews and Andrew Gordon, who between them have also had a hand in creating family favourites The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Brave, Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo among others.
So you might expect that the video is pretty impressive stuff – and you'd be right. It features a host of bizarre and interesting characters, including a suited-and-booted, cigar-chomping Donald Trump-esque American seated in the kind of stretch limo in which President John F Kennedy met his death, three faceless British gentlemen in bowler hats with their tailored trousers shredded leaving their Union Jack boxer shorts on display, some random freaky humanoids, and no fewer than four cloaked, motorbike-riding Eddies – including the Mayan Eddie from The Book Of Souls and the Cyborg Eddie from Somewhere In Time – tearing around and wreaking merry havoc. As the narrative unfolds a new Eddie – Samurai Eddie! – is revealed, with our new hero swiftly dispatching of many of the peripheral characters by slicing them into shreds.
Textbook Eddie.
On the video, Dickinson says: “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 [director] 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, 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 says: “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, and Romania to the USA 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.”
Catch the video below.
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