Iron Maiden are back, back, back! After starting their comeback in recent weeks with a series of insidious cryptic clues, the British metal legends stormed off with their first new music in six years and their first single since 2016’s Empire Of The Clouds, the gripping The Writing On The Wall, back.
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 action animation video for The Writing On The Wall was filmed with the help of two former Pixar managers – and lifelong Maiden fans – Mark Andrews and Andrew Gordon, who together also helped develop family favorite The Incredibles, Ratatouille, Brave , Monsters, Inc. and Finding Nemo among others.
So you can expect the video to be pretty impressive – and you’re right. It features a host of bizarre and interesting characters, including a Donald Trump-style shivering, cigar-eating American in a suit and boots, sitting in a stretch limo where President John F. Kennedy found his death, three faceless British gentlemen in bowler hats with theirs Torn pants flaunting their Union Jack boxer shorts, a few random freaky humanoids, and no less than four cloaked, motorcycling Eddies – including the Mayan Eddie from The Book Of Souls and the Cyborg Eddie from Somewhere In Time – are tearing around and wreak havoc. As the narrative unfolds, a new Eddie arrives – Samurai Eddie! – will be revealed quickly with our new hero Dispatch of many peripheral characters by cutting into shreds.
Textbook Eddie.
In the video, Dickinson says, “I had a pretty clear idea of the concept that was going to accompany the song and when I met Mark and Andrew at Zoom it quickly became apparent that we were all very much on the same wavelength and that was reinforced with the addition of [director] Nicos and his young BlinkInk team. Our weekly Team Zoom meetings were mostly very creative and a lot of fun!
“I’m very proud of the result of the video, it’s actually more of a mini film. I knew it would work as soon as Mark brought my treatment to life with his incredible storyboards – I thought we could do something really special together. I think we did and I hope our fans will agree. In fact, it was pretty much made by Maiden fans! ”
Director Nicos Livesey says, “We quickly found the expertise we wanted and people literally popped on 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. ”something about the clip and I would say their love, passion and understanding for the band shine through every frame. They were a dream team for the producers and me to manage it. ”
Check out the video below.
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