After much speculation and fan theories, Iron Maiden officially invited all their fans to something called "Belshezzar's Feast" on July 15. Now the band has added a new twist to the invite, with a short video of a hand tearing down the "Belshezzar's Feast" poster and revealing the acronym WOTW.
Fans have already figured out that WOTW very likely stands for Writing On The Wall. This of course stems from the Biblical story Belshazzar's feast, which is more commonly known as the story of the writing on the wall. Plus, we've already seen the WOTW acronym in this exact font on the band's Legacy of the Beast Tour 2022 poster. You can see the acronym on the wall (get it?) to the right of Eddie.
Stay tuned on July 15 for hopefully some new music!
As a brief recap, this all started back in 2019 when longtime Iron Maiden producer Kevin "Caveman" Shirley posted in his social media recap that he was "working very hard on an unnamed but not-very-secret project" throughout the year, which left "a loud ringing in my ears." This was followed up in both 2020 and 2021 by members of the band hinting that something might be coming.
Then fans began finding flyers for "Belshezzar's Feast" at the Download Pilot fest. The flyers featured, among other things, the dates July 15 and the Roman Numerals IMXVII. The latter of which is not a valid Roman Numeral, and could stand for Iron Maiden 17 (this being their seventeenth album). Oh, and Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson also wore a "Belshezzar's Feast" shirt in his recent BBC interview.
Then there was mysterious Twitter account @bels_feast that joined in June 2021. That account has predictably been "trying to get to the bottom of things" and is retweeting additional instances of that same poster.
Anyway, Belshezzar's Feast. July 15. Prepare yourselves.
