Iron Maiden lead singer Bruce Dickinson recently opened up about the band’s inspiration for the music video of ‘The Writing on the Wall’ during an interview with Classic Rock. According to the vocalist, he was influenced by Rammstein’s music video for ‘Deutschland.’
‘Deutschland’ is a song by Rammstein, released as the lead single of their untitled seventh studio album on 28 March 2019. It was their first new music since the song ‘Mein Land’ in 2011, and it didn’t fail to surprise their fans as the song became the band’s second No. 1 single in Germany after ‘Pussy’ in 2009.
The song’s music video was also a success as the lengthy video sparked controversy with its dark, violent, and morbid style, which is typical of Rammstein’s aesthetic considering their previous videos. The video has a variety of scenes featuring science-fiction, cannibalism, bank robbery, and more, all of which resulted in more than 200 million views on the band’s official YouTube channel.
Much like Rammstein’s comeback with ‘Deutschland,’ Iron Maiden also released their first single since 2016 with ‘The Writing on the Wall‘ on 15 July 2021, which was the lead single of their album, ‘Senjutsu.’ The song was successful as Loudwire even elected it as the 14th best metal song of 2021.
The track was released along with a music video that includes a story written by Bruce Dickinson himself. The video was inspired by several biblical stories, featuring the band’s famous mascot, Eddie, in various styles influenced by the artwork of previous albums. The animated video currently has a little over 20 million views on the band’s official YouTube channel.
During a recent interview, Bruce Dickinson referred to the music video of ‘The Writing on the Wall’ as their ‘little animated secret weapon.’ Since the band couldn’t tour or do live shows for a while due to the coronavirus pandemic, Dickinson thought they could channel their resources into a music video.
According to the singer, his main inspiration for the music video was Rammstein’s ‘Deutschland,’ a piece of art if you ask Dickinson. Although Rammstein and Iron Maiden have different music styles, the emotional effect of their music video influenced the band for their own video.
About his inspiration for ‘The Writing on the Wall,’ Dickinson said:
“We did have our little animated secret weapon, which was the video for ‘The Writing on the Wall.’ I knew we weren’t going to be going anywhere for a while, and Maiden certainly wasn’t going to be setting up our gear in some rehearsal studio and pretending we’re playing some huge live gig cos we’d just look like a proper bunch of Charlies.
So I said: ‘We should put our resources into doing an incredible video.’ My template for it was the Rammstein video for ‘Deutschland,’ which was a piece of art. Rammstein and Maiden are different styles, but what I was after was the emotional impact that video we had. And I think we captured the emotional impact.”
You can watch both music videos below.
