Is Iron Maiden releasing new music on July 15? The signs are certainly there that something is happening. This of course 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. Now here's where things get weird.
According to a lengthy report by Loudwire, 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). The flyer also mentions the [email protected] email address, which one fan messaged and got a response.
Oh, and Iron Maiden vocalist Bruce Dickinson also wore a "Belshezzar's Feast" shirt in his recent BBC interview.
Then there's the 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. So yeah, Iron Maiden is absolutely up to something.