After teasing their long starved fans with hints and clues for the last two weeks, metal legends Iron Maiden have cranked the treasure hunt up 666% with the release of their brand new video for ‘The Writing On The Wall.’

Their first new material since 2015’s The Book Of Souls, this new single sees Steve Harris’ men draw inspiration from our own Horslips and ‘70s Celtic Rock and boasts a hook you could hang the moon off married with riffs that are as sharp as the debuting Samurai Eddie’s chopper.

You may recall your humble scribe was the first music journalist in the world to write about the ongoing Mystery Of Belshazzar’s Feast (I only answer to “The Newry Nostradamus” here in the hallowed halls of Hot Press these days) and while the Irons are still keeping tight lipped about the likelihood of a new album at the time of writing, you can bet your last bottle of Trooper Beer that there’s one on the way soon. Trust in my new found powers of clairvoyance, my friends...

While you wait for that, check out the Easter Egg laden video for ‘The Writing On The Wall’ now (R.I.P. Sooty….).

Iron Maiden frontman Bruce Dickinson initially had a concept for the video which came to fruition in collaboration with two Award-winning former Pixar executives and long-standing Maiden fans Mark Andrews & Andrew Gordon. The pair have over 50 years of animation industry experience between them at the very top-level including work on The Incredibles, Monsters Inc and Finding Nemo. With partners lining up to get involved with the project they chose BlinkInk, a London based animation studio celebrated for their work with a variety of global brands from Adidas to Coca-Cola and a number of high-profile music videos.

In BlinkInk director Nicos Livesey, another long-time Maiden fan and kindred spirit, they found a man who shared the collective vision for the track – resulting in the final film which features the very first glimpse of a stunning new incarnation of Eddie in spectacular 3D form.

Bruce comments “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, 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!”