Trench

BY: RILEY S.

Last night, I listened to a new album by Twenty One Pilots called Trench. Twenty One Pilots is an alternative rock band. This album’s overall feel is dark, depressing, and painful.

Twenty One Pilots is a two member band from Columbus, Ohio. When the band was initially formed in 2009, it had four members, but two of them left the band before they had any real success. They started out by building a local, but faithful fan base like many bands do. Trench is their fifth album which follows their highly successful 2015 album Blurryface. Blurryface is the only album in history to have every song go either gold, platinum, or multi platinum. Other albums include the self titled Twenty One Pilots, Regional at Best, and Vessel. That being said, it will be difficult for Trench to reach that pinnacle.

Musically speaking Trench appears to put the duo in a different place in their lives.

There seems to be an overall theme to this album. The title of the album is Trench and the songs carry a dark depressive feel both musically and lyrically, like maybe there stuck down in the trench or pit. This album has 14 tracks that display a variety of musical styles including hip hop, rock, disco, reggae, and techno. Lyrically, the content is very dark with phrases like, “ I can’t believe how much I hate”, in the first track, “Jumpstart” to “ sipping on straight chlorine” from “Chlorine” or “ demons all control us” from “ Nico and the Niners”.

One track the stood out is “Morph” because it feels like a more R&B vibe with all the falsetto. Another great song is”Neon Gravestones” that speaks about how our culture glorifies celebrity suicide with lyrics like “ Our culture can treat a loss like a win”. My least favorite track is “Pet Cheetah”. It’s a goofy song that just doesn’t resonate with me. Twenty One Pilots use of various musical styles makes them stand out in the alt-rock genre.

As far as an overall rating, I would give it a B+. The musicality of this album makes it very interesting to listen to, but it’s overall depressive darkness makes it not an album for daily listening.