After three years with no new album and a year of silence, Twenty One Pilots (TOP) released their highly anticipated and latest album, “Trench.” The world of “Trench” is incredibly detailed, emotional and heavy with symbolism, and while it features TOP’s iconic sound, it’s something quite unique and new for the best friend band of two.

“Trench” mainly follows the story of the character Clancy and his experiences in and escape from the city of DEMA, an oppressive world led by beings called bishops. Lead singer Tyler Joseph also takes the opportunity to pen some songs with more personal motivations, a few being “Smithereens” as a love song for his wife, “Legends” as a tribute to his grandfather and “Neon Gravestones” as an exposé about how society glorifies suicide.

While we still hear some classic ukulele riffs, raps from Joseph and unique beats from drummer Josh Dun, “Trench” explores a lot of new musicality for the band. Its songs are longer, venture into more contrast between lyrical melodies and uptempo rap, and feature more falsettos from Joseph. Though the band has addressed serious issues such as mental health and suicidal thoughts in their previous albums, “Trench” mentions these things in a more mature tone than heard before. Though faced with a lot of pressure to create this album, TOP succeeded in doing something entirely their own. They continue to create things unlike what anyone else is doing, and continue to grow as musicians.

I love the basslines, funky beats and unique lyrics of this album. The bass in “Chlorine” brings a literal depth to the figurative depth of the lyrics, and the third verse of the song is stylistically one of my favorite parts of the album. “Cut My Lip” also features a very strong bassline and is a good example of the slower pace of the album, which allows for more depth and detail throughout. “Pet Cheetah” is one of the most unique tracks, and while some think it’s too strange, I love that the song is basically a product of Joseph’s writer’s block and the pressure he feels to write. Finally, my favorite song of the album is “Morph.” The varying beats and vocals along with the electronic backgrounds join to create a song I think represents the tone of the whole album and TOP’s new sound.

Beyond the sound of Trench’s new songs, I love that there are so many deep meanings and connections to Joseph’s personal life behind each track. There’s so much honesty and emotion in the lyrics, while still being a little humorous as well. While the premise of the album is that it’s about the character Clancy, it’s assumed his story symbolizes Joseph’s — much of the world of “Trench” alludes to Joseph’s mental health much like TOP’s past albums.

“Trench” is a beautifully unique and deep album that is quite refreshing in today’s age of cookie-cutter, basic music. Anyone who’s searching for something different and meaningful should give Twenty One Pilots a try.