Trench is a cocktail of sounds with tracks that fit under alt/synth pop, rock and hip hop. It’s a dynamic album that doesn’t fall into a homogeneous sound and at the same time doesn’t jarringly transition between tracks. Twenty One Pilots have continued to address the theme of mental health from all angles and take more risks thematically.
The Ohio duo pulls you down throughout the album as the tracks transition from the edge of a heavy rock influence down through alternative hip hop and alt-pop. The stand out track, ‘Neon Gravestones’, aptly samples a Beethoven piano sonata to attribute to the melancholic instrumental, whilst the lyrics criticise the romanticised nature of suicide from both a personal and objective perspective. ‘Chlorine’ has an infectious hook; “sippin’ on straight chlorine”, and jumps between laidback sung verses to an incredibly rhythmic rap verse before disintegrating into a spacey outro, successfully making the five-minute track interesting.
Trench is definitely a project that requires a second play to appreciate, but could have benefited from a few track cuts. It stands out in the pop community as an album that walks around traditional song structure and covers themes from new angles.
