Review: Breach…(Spoilers)

After a year of waiting from the cliffhanger that was Clancy, Twenty-One Pilots has finally given us the end of the Dema storyline in their new album Breach. Overall, this album was what I’ve been saying it would be for the past few months as “The Contract” and “Drum Show” were released.

#1: The Music

Musically, Breach is a mix of all of TOP’s previous albums, but it especially takes from Vessel and Blurryface, especially in the song “Tally.” “City Walls,” the first song on the album, is especially impressive, as it picks up where “Paladin Straight” left off, and if you watch the music video (which is almost ten minutes long), it incorporates so many tie ins with previous albums. At one point, it even includes the opening of “Heavydirtysoul” from Blurryface, the ending of “Paladin Straight” from Clancy, and “Holding onto You” from Vessel. The last song on the alubm, “Intentions” also has the same instrumentals as the song “Truce,” but they’re done backwards.

“City Walls” also does a lot lyrically to tie together previous albums, especially with some callbacks to songs such as “Neon Gravestones” in Trench and “Backslide” in Clancy. The ending to the Dema storyline is that Clancy defeats Nico but becomes the new leader of the bishops in the process while Josh Dun (Torchbearer) is forced to go in search of a new Clancy. Clancy has slid so far back into what he hated that he’s become it, and this calls back to one of the last lyrics of “Neon Gravestones” which is: “Promise me this/If I lose to myself/You won’t mourn for a day/And you’ll move on to someone else.” Clancy has given up in his fight, but Torchbearer is still trying again. At this point, it’s basically become like Anakin and Obi-Wan Kenobi.

One of the other songs that was really good on this album was “Cottonwood,” which was a tribute to Tyler Joseph’s late grandfather who died back in 2018 of Alzheimer’s Disease. It’s a sweet song and really touches on themes of grief, loss, and memory.

Overall, my favorite songs on this album are “City Walls,” “One Way,” “Cotton Wood,” “Tally,” and “Rawfear.”

#2: The Music Videos

There aren’t a lot of music videos on this track because the Dema storyline is over, but when there were music videos, they were very well done. Returning once more to “City Walls,” the music video was picking up on the battle shown in “Paladin Straight” and the visuals were stunning with so many Easter Eggs from Blurryface and Trench. The acting was really good, and honestly, if you were to put all these music videos together, they could be a movie. I seriously have to wonder how the production quality of these music videos is better than what we’ve been getting from actual movies nowadays.

I would give this album a 4.5/5 stars.

Until next time,

M.J.