If the complex (and wonderful) cover of Somewhere In Time can tell us anything, it's that Iron Maiden loves leaving codes for fans. This time, the internet seems to have deciphered the release date of unreleased material.
The website Loudwire has compiled all the clues about the successor to The Book of Souls , and there has been evidence of the new release's imminence since December 2019. At that time, producer Kevin 'Caveman' Shirley , responsible for all of the band's albums since the 2000s, spoke about a "not-so-secret" project completed in France that left him with a "loud ringing in his ears" upon finishing. It's worth remembering that Bruce Dickinson has lived in the country for about a year and Maiden has already finished albums in Paris in recent years.
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Recent interviews with Dickinson also indicate new material is on the way – and soon. Speaking about the Download , the singer hinted mysteriously at a project that would take place before that performance. “I safely predict it will be brought forward for a number of reasons, not just the fact that it’s a music festival in the middle of a desert. A lot of other things are going to happen, which I think people will be thrilled about,” he commented to the event's channel.
Maiden's participation in Download Festival 2022 involves several clues. Some flyers around the event's location in the UK advertised Belshazzar's Feast. This is a biblical event narrated in the Old Testament, about a mysterious message that appeared on the wall during a feast of the king of the same name, with the prophecy of his death for blaspheming against God. The story is also known as Writing on the Wall because of these writings.
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Featuring cryptic phrases (“live forever”, “man or beast” and “heaven or hell”), the posters include the date 15/07 and the code IMXVII, interpreted as “Iron Maiden” (IM) and XVII (17 in Roman numerals).
The frontman also made headlines for his comments on the Brexit economic bloc while speaking to Sky News, but the singer's t-shirt, emblazoned with Belshazzar's Feast logo and featuring the same design as the Download festival poster, became the focus of attention for investigative internet users.
This month, a Twitter profile named Daniel , curiously the name of the biblical book that recounts the story of Belshazzar, and with a username referencing Belshazzar's Feast, posted images related to the topic. Things became even more suspicious for fans when they noticed that the account only follows 16 profiles, all pages that subtly reference Maiden's 16 albums.
And as always, things can get even stranger. Yesterday, the 29th, the band made a post on their Twitter profile that, at first glance, might seem related to just football, but the final phrase of the post (Walker on the wing) has the same initials as Writing on the Wall. Supposedly, the acronym WOTW appeared on the flyers for Belshazzar's Feast.
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To conclude this chapter of the mystery with a flourish, which may have an end date, today, the 30th, a YouTube account under the name Daniel Belshazzar shared a supposed new Maiden song, titled “Writing on the Wall (Belshazzar's Feast)”, sung without Bruce Dickinson …
So, what does all this mean? Will we finally find out on July 15th? Nobody knows yet, but we're certainly hoping.