This story is mostly given through the trilogy of videos released with the album. In fact, the whole album is about the main character fighting off the bishops and trying to escape the city with the help of the Banditos, the resistance group opposing Dema, but constantly being driven back by a Bishop. They forget until they’re nothing but prisoners inside Dema. The bishops have the power to erase memories, they enforce “Vialism” (and no one is quite sure what that is), and so they help people forget. My opinion is that people go to Dema for redemption.

The specifics of the city are a bit of a debate, since nowhere in the music or other resources by the band it’s explained exactly what’s going on, only small clues are given here and there. Most of the song in the album are connected, and give hints about an imaginary city called “Dema”, ruled by 9 powerful and evil “bishops”. The music is fantastic and more importantly, there’s a story behind it and a whole, hidden world. “Trench” by Twenty One Pilots is a really great album. This is such a hard combination to accomplish. I love getting used to songs so much that they no longer really distract me, but they’re still interesting enough for me to stop what I’m doing and listen carefully. I connected my headphones to my phone, opened Spotify, clicked play and there it was, the very common, somewhat soothing music my ears have come to expect.

Right now, for example, I’m listening to it. I usually listen to music while coding, and whenever I want to play music I just press play on my Spotify, and since I’ve been listening to the same album for so long, I simply keep listening to it. I’ve been listening to this one album for more than a month now.

Music pilot talk trilogy