Rating 10/10

Twenty One Pilots has returned after riding out their triple platinum album Blurryface in 2015. After three years of touring, and many awards and nominations, the duo has released their fifth studio album, Trench.

Like all the albums before it, Trench tells a story. Lead singer and song writer Tyler Joseph is able to do more than just a single-track storyline, but an entire album. An earlier album Vessel was upbeat with a quirky sound with lyrics that really told a not so upbeat story. With the album after that, Blurryface, Joseph incorporates more of a hip-hop/rap style with techno beats telling a dark story of the demons he has battled.

Now, with the newest release of Trench, Joseph continues that story, almost as the aftermath of Blurryface. This album really feels like the previous album Blurryface slowed down, literally like the dust has settled. Certain tracks during the new album Trench feel like Blurryface creeps through, but Joseph slows in down to tell you his part of the story this time. Trench is a unique sound even to the already unique duo themselves. Trench has a more of a slow pace, soothing sound with almost a reggae vibe, and even introduces some spoken word. Joseph still doesn’t hesitate to come out fast and quick with tracks such as “Pet Cheetah” and “Levitate.” Joseph even has his own unique approach to love songs with “Smithereens” as he tells his wife he would take on a much bigger man than his 153-pound frame only to get beat to smithereens for her.

For the first time in the band’s history the drummer Josh Dun, and counterpart to Tyler Joseph wrote lyrics for a few tracks. The band wrapped up the last tour only to go on a one-year hiatus, fans were only being told that Joseph was severing ties with “Dema” a tower of silence. He has come back and has relinquished himself from that tower, telling fans almost shouting “Dema don’t control us” in his track “Nico and the Niners.”

This newest album, Trench is still the same Twenty One Pilots as before, that being they have given us something completely new to hear, feel, and even analyze the cryptic lyrics.

The full album is streaming on www.twentyonepilots.com and is a must listen.