“We’re Twenty One Pilots and so are you!” is a familiar statement. It’s what frontman Tyler Joseph has ended several concerts with since the band formed in 2009, but also one that can be quite misleading. Of course, listeners are not actually playing alongside Joseph and drummer Josh Dun when they take the stage, but the phrase is representative of everything the band stands for. On Friday, Sept. 12, Twenty One Pilots’ eighth studio album, titled “Breach,” hit streaming services and record stores alike. Incredibly anticipated after last May’s “Clancy,” it serves as the final chapter to the story Joseph and Dun have been telling since 2015’s chart-smasher “Blurryface.”
“Blurryface,” “Trench,” “Scaled and Icy,” “Clancy” and “Breach” are all part of the narrative of Clancy and The Torchbearer, who are citizens of a city called Dema on the island of Trench. There is a group called the Bishops, led by a man called Nico, who lead the city under a religion called Vialism, which is heavily based in destruction and death; they are contrasted with the Banditos, including Clancy and Torchbearer, who are at war with the Bishops to defeat them and Vialism. While “Blurryface” sets up the Bishops and Clancy as characters, the other four albums detail Clancy’s escape from the Bishops, allyship with Torchbearer and the Banditos and the final battle where he confronts Nico once and for all. Finally, as revealed in “Breach,” after defeating Nico, Clancy and some of the other Banditos become the new Bishops in a turn of events. They leave Torchbearer and the rest of his men to try to defeat Vialism again in the future—only this time, they will be without Clancy, or at least the one followed throughout Twenty One Pilots’ albums.
At a first glance, one may think that Clancy becoming the very thing he sought to destroy is potentially the most dissatisfying ending possible, but this is far from the truth. It had been discovered early on that the Bishops and Banditos are metaphors: the Banditos are representative of happiness, while the Bishops are the manifestations of sadness and depression. While it would have been incredible to see the Banditos prevail, the rise of Clancy as a Bishop represents the very true phenomenon of relapse. Mental health is far from linear; Torchbearer notes this, as he claims the Bishop is no longer Clancy, and he is someone they need to find again. The Banditos have been through this before; what the Clancy fans see is not the first nor the last, and they will not rest until he has truly healed.
While this tale is conveyed through lyrics, the music videos for a handful of songs by Twenty One Pilots aid the telling of Clancy’s story. It’s no coincidence that the industrial tone at the end of “City Walls,” the final chapter of the story, blends seamlessly into “Heavydirtysoul,” the first video released and the start of the narrative. Mental health is a cycle, as is Clancy’s journey.
Ever since their first record, Twenty One Pilots have included themes of depression, anxiety and other mental struggles in their music. By giving Clancy a realistic end, it communicates to fans that setbacks are okay; it can, and will, get better. The end of Clancy’s story is not the only closure provided to fans, as sonically, “Breach” is a cumulation of everything the band has done up to this point.
As the album opener, “City Walls” starts out with a powerful bassline, echoing sounds from albums like “Blurryface” and “Trench.” A direct continuation in the storyline from “Paladin Strait” off of “Clancy,” Joseph raps over drum and synth beats, before closing the song out with a lyric repeated from “Vessel” hit “Holding On To You.” The opening track instantly brings back past motifs, making an already emotional song even more so for longtime fans. It ends with the opening synths of “Heavydirtysoul” from “Blurryface,” before going into the second track, “RAWFEAR.” The musical style changes, having a more poppy, indie sound, as Joseph sings about terror and running from your fears. The tempo of the song’s bridge speeds up, reflecting a climbing heart rate as someone is exposed to a terrifying concept. Although it contains no direct references to past music, “RAWFEAR” is a fantastic song, and feels right in its place on the album.
“Drum Show” is the second single from “Breach,” and the third song on the tracklist. It’s a love letter to music and rage all at once, and also features the first ever recorded vocals from drummer Josh Dun. With his instrument being in the title, it’s fair to assume that this song is about Dun himself; both Joseph and Dun carry pure, raw emotion in their voices, while singing about a late night drive to drown out the rest of the world. Moving from the angsty rock into indie pop once again, “Garbage” is straightforward with its topic. Disguising themes of depression under happy piano and synths that reflect “Scaled and Icy” and “lost” album “Regional At Best,” it’s a well-made song that gets buried by how good nearly every other track is on “Breach.” “The Contract” takes listeners back to the story of Clancy and Torchbearer, but is a unique, nearly “Hybrid Theory”-era Linkin Park-sounding song that also dulls in comparison to the rest of the album. Still, it is an effective lead single with drums that really emphasize how talented Josh Dun is.
Already a fan favorite, “Downstairs” is taken from a “Regional At Best”-era demo saved to Josh Dun’s computer. Featuring similar synths to other songs on that album, it has a slow, beautiful hook, before diving into heavy bass and drums that shake your bones. With lyrics about suppressing emotions, it has the typical deep message found in several Twenty One Pilots songs, but brings back the “Vessel”-like key change that makes the song and lyrics all the more powerful. “Robot Voices” features more vocals than anything else, and sounds nearly like a song by indie rock band The Wombats. It’s an upbeat love song that still fits into “Breach,” but does feel like the album’s largest outlier. On the contrary, “Center Mass” is a love letter to the Twenty One Pilots fanbase, as the first twenty seconds include references to two viral videos from the Clancy tour last year, most notably one where a fan stole Josh Dun’s drum. The track brings back sounds from “Clancy,” and takes raw emotion found in Joseph’s voice and the lyrics he sings about vulnerability. Importantly, it calls back to several other songs in Twenty One Pilots’ discography, such as “The Judge” and “Morph,” where Josh Dun’s name is dropped.
“Cottonwood” is a far slower song, and one of the most emotional tracks on “Breach.” It serves as a song about grief and mourning; Tyler Joseph wrote it about his grandfather who passed earlier this year. It nearly feels like a song off their debut album, but with enhanced synths and production. Varying greatly is “One Way,” which could easily slip right into the tracklist of “Trench” in another universe. A little boring compared to some of the other songs, it ends with a voicemail from Josh Dun introducing the next song, with a seamless transition into “Days Lie Dormant.” Very upbeat and bass heavy, it is very different from the track prior, which is something Dun notes in his outro. Triumphant and epic, you can clearly tell the album will be closing soon, as Joseph sings about his homesickness while on tour.
A phenomenon shared between “Clancy” and “Breach” is the presence of a song on each that Tyler Joseph wanted to cut from the album, but Josh Dun convinced him to keep. Both “Navigating” off the former and “Tally” from the latter are also ironically fan favorites, and also relevant in the lore of Clancy and Torchbearer. “Tally” seems to be a final apology from Clancy before he becomes a Bishop, as Joseph’s vocals are intense, harsh and carrying emotional weight. It can also be viewed as Joseph worrying he is not doing enough to satisfy the fanbase, despite putting out two albums in under two years. The final track of “Breach” is “Intentions,” which plays the reversed instrumental from “Vessel’s” closer, “Truce.” While “Truce” was the final song the band released before they started releasing lore-related music—the closing of one era—“Intentions” closes the story of Clancy and Torchbearer for good and thanks the fans for sticking around. Through the biggest homage they’ve paid to any part of their discography, one chapter closes, and we must wait to see what comes next.
“Breach” is not only the perfect ending for Clancy and Torchbearer, but is a collection of 13 songs that arguably sound the most “Twenty One Pilots” out of anything they’ve made. A blending of everything they’ve worked for over the past 10 years and more, Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun went above and beyond in their craft, and made an album that is nothing short of art.
Photo credit: Wikimedia
