Twenty One Pilots New Album "Breach" Wraps Up A Storyline That Has Been 10+ Years In The Making
by Kelsie Barlow | October 7th, 2025
On September 12th, Twenty One Pilots released their 8th studio album, Breach, and wrapped up a story they’ve been telling through their music that started over 10 years ago. As a fan of them for over 10 years myself, I really feel like this album is a love letter to all of their music they’ve released before now. Throughout the album, the band references songs that go all the way back to their 2013 album Vessel, and even reworked a demo from 14 years ago to put on the new album. The album encapsulates themes that have been present in the story, and beautifully ends the lore fans have been decoding and following since the release of Blurryface.
What is the story? It’s a jam-packed action set in a fictional world, and it’s all a metaphor for Tyler’s (and all of our) battle with mental health. To summarize, Tyler/ Clancy is the main character of the story, and he is trying to escape Dema, which is a circular city made up of 9 towers. Dema is run by the Bishops who rule by a fictional religion known as Vialism. Vialism is the belief that ending your own life is the only way to true paradise, but the doctrine has been hijacked by the Bishops for them to use the bodies of the dead for their agenda. With the help of Josh the Torchbearer and the Banditos, Clancy tries to take down the Bishop’s, especially Nico, the leader of the group. The story ends with an epic battle between Nico and Clancy, where Clancy seemingly defeats Nico, but ends up turning into a Bishop himself. This shows that the battle against mental health isn’t something that you definitively win, but a cycle with victory and loss.
The first song and music video on the album, City Walls, is the final chapter of the lore. The rest of the songs on the album also have nuggets of lore, but mainly serve as a reflection of the story and how far the band has come. One song that I think relates to themes of the lore is the second-to-last track on the album (and my favorite), Tally. In the chorus of Tally, Tyler sings, “You want a tally, I lost the count. You want to love me, I’ll let you down. Still now, you believe in me somehow. When I replay it in my mind, I see your heart break every time. Still now, you believe in me somehow.” I feel that these lyrics connect to the end of the story because even though Clancy let Torchbearer down when he became a Bishop, Torchbearer still believes that a Clancy will come along and win the fight against the Bishops.
After listening to Breach all the way through several times, I really feel like it’s an album with no skips. Songs like Rawfear and Garbage are incredibly fun to dance and sing along to. Downstairs gave longtime fans a throwback, and Robot Voices showcased how Twenty One Pilots collaborated with a smaller band to take an existing song and make it a new one. Cottonwood was an emotional journey exploring family loss and grief, while One Way earns its place as the grooviest song on the record with an unforgettable transition into Days Lie Dormant. The album ends with Intentions, which is a song that was devastating, especially to fans who have been listening since Vessel. Tyler somberly sings, “I am starting it all over once again. Did I learn a thing? Intentions are everything. Intentions will set you free.” The instrumentals of this song are their song Truce, which is the closing song on Vessel, played backward. The lyrics refer to this cyclical pattern, while the nature of the song and where it comes from feel full circle as well. While Twenty One Pilots will be taking a hiatus after this tour, Breach leaves fans wanting more and leaves fans looking forward to where they will go next in the future, and beyond the story of Dema.
