About The Writing On The Wall

"The Writing on the Wall" is a song by the English heavy metal band Iron Maiden. The song was released on 15 July 2021 alongside a music video, and served as the lead single from their seventeenth studio album Senjutsu. Released seven weeks before the album, it marks the longest time between the release of an Iron Maiden single and the studio album it is featured on since 1980's "Running Free". It was also the band's first single since 2016's "Empire of the Clouds".

The song's music video was directed by Nicos Livesey from BlinkInk, a London based animation studio, in collaboration with Bruce Dickinson and former Pixar executives and long-standing Maiden fans Mark Andrews and Andrew Gordon via weekly Zoom meetings. The video is a story written by Dickinson, inspired by the biblical stories of Belshazzar's feast and Daniel, as well as other biblical references featuring the band's mascot, Eddie, in various styles influenced by the artwork of previous albums. The visual effects were provided by BlinkInk with fans of the band reaching out with storyboard ideas from across the globe.