Bingo fuel levels are — out of harm’s way — non-too-critical to declare an emergency; as navigating turbulence pilots fly by the seat of their pants. Coordinating turns, pitch control, as well as throttle management — similarly to how situational awareness, hand-eye coordination and decision-making ensures safe as well as efficient flights; a blend of stealth, tighter turns and agile maneuvers is tracking to destination — free-floating Grammy award-winning sumptuous musical rock duo — Twenty One Pilots’ unfiltered mission, that “bolt upright” initiated at zero dark thirty.
With a decidedly expected dewy behind the ears in the offing musky virgin studio chisel of arpeggios: Breach, having ultimately premiered on Friday, September 12 — via sweltering record label Fueled By Ramen; what encapsulates the essence of drummer Josh Dun as well as lead vocalist Tyler Joseph, is the band’s — super distinct progressive cutting edge — sound, which chiefly borrows from a synthesis of sundry genres.
Above and beyond slotting-in singing, screaming, as well as every now and then crooning in the American band from Columbus, Ohio’s canons; the latter whose midas soupçon is correspondingly vital on keyboards, synthesizers, piano, ukulele, guitar drones, samples, bass, as well as programming — utters that he accidentally soon found himself saying poetry in tempo, thereupon, realising that he is rapping!
A whiz kid in percussion, programming, trumpet, keyboards, and backing vocals; the former would become instrumental in Twenty One Pilots’ musical style which has often-than-not been described as Alternative Rock, Electro Pop, Pop Rap, Alternative Hip-Hop, Indie Pop, Electronic Rock, Pop Rock, IndieTronica, Rap Rock, Emo, Indie Rock, as well as Hip-Hop.
New-sprung ballads anchoring the top half of this to the highest degree apt than not wonted to be a-good-as-possibly-can 13-track project are; City Walls, RAWFEAR, Drum Show, Garbage, The Contract, Downstairs, and Robot Voices. Bubbling under — Center Mass, Cottonwood, One Way, Days Lie Dormant, Tally, as well as Intentions — come on the same pedal of anthems making up a part of the ditty list taking the lion’s share of this latterly foaled toil of chords.
Industriously achieving its commercial “happy chance” in the 2015 time period, with Blurryface — the group’s fourth craft of blues; the Stressed Out, Ride, and Heathens berceuse architects — have also experimented with Nu Metal, Reggae, EDM, Hard Rock, Electronica, Post-Punk, Rhythm & Blues, Disco, Pop, Folk, Spoken Word, Emo Rap, Funk, Synth-Pop, Techno, House, Psychedelic, Bedroom Pop, as well as Garage Rock!
Besides becoming the first album on which every donut received at least a gold certification from the Recording Industry Association of America; the latter beats sculpt walked away with a gong in the category of — “Top Rock Album” — at the Billboard Music Awards, while Twenty One Pilots won the category of — “Top Rock Artist”.
Not only did the birth of ‘Heathens’ make the duo the first alternative artist in history to have two concurrent top five singles in the Billboard Hot 100; Stressed Out became Twenty One Pilots’ best-selling lullaby, having been certified 13× Platinum, as well as cresting at position two on the US Billboard Hot 100, and catapulting to the summit of both the Alternative Songs and Hot Rock Songs charts.
Heathens, which plays during the ending credits of Suicide Squad: a 2016 American superhero film based on the super villain/anti-hero team from DC Comics — became Joseph as well as Dun’s second hit on the US Billboard Hot 100 to place position 2, and to become certified Diamond. The fifth sonic blast from Blurryface, Ride — peaked at number 5 on the charts and earned the pair a third solid Diamond certification. More to that, the seminal latter work of euphony re-entered the Billboard 200 chart, placing position 64; following a limited edition 10th anniversary re-release.
By being the third rock act in history to have two lilts simultaneously chart in the top five of the Billboard Hot 100; Twenty One Pilots would supremely join the league of the likes of Beatles an English rock band, as well as American singer and actor Elvis Aaron Presley — as a matter of course referred to as the “King of Rock and Roll”. Surpassing over 2.8 billion views on American social media as well as online video sharing platform — YouTube — with its tune Stressed Out; the band is heavily on autopilot!
Trench (2018) is Twenty One Pilots’ fifth studio full-bodied oeuvre, which debuted at position 2 on the Billboard 200, and top spot on the Top Rock Albums as well as Alternative Albums charts. Before the group breathed into life its seventh studio buzzing composition — Clancy — on May 22 of the 2024 time period; it dropped its sixth studio magnum opus — ‘Scaled and Icy’ — on May 21 of the 2021 period of time.
The flight adhering to its planned schedule, performances of thunder joints — Overcompensate, Next Semester, Backslide, as well as The Craving — from An Evening with Twenty One Pilots’, were later used for an exclusive limited-edition version of Clancy titled Clancy: Digital Remains; a digital-only album released on May 30 of last 12-month, before being taken down the next day. Digital Remains was also whelped with an élite 121-page booklet featuring alternate artwork, handwritten lyrics, rare photographs, and personal artifacts from when Twenty One Pilots was formed.
The aircraft has touched down, the birth of the duo’s chef-d’oeuvre of tonal patterns christened Breach — last Friday — comes just before the kickoff of an additional leg of North American shows; in support of the spick-and-span latter euphony craft as well as Clancy — themed: The Clancy Tour: Breach 2025.
Cleared for takeoff, before this hot in the pocket horde confrontation — culminates on October 25; it shall shuffle stops at stadiums as well as amphitheatres across North America — getting afoot this coming Thursday (September 18), with a sold-out show at Cincinnati’s TQL Stadium.
No deviations from planned route, when Twenty One Pilots come face-to-face with rooters; vertical crowd-surfing, leaping, scaffolding scaling, back flipping, and suspended bridge walking; will good-as-possibly-can, quite frankly, become an outstanding deciding factor that shall raise buffs’ pulse. Thereupon, permitting Joseph as well as Dun to live “stupidly” rent-free for a while in connoisseurs’ brains!
Maintaining a safe buffer, having garnered 12 number-one songs on the Alternative Airplay chart — tying with American rock band Foo Fighters for the fifth-most; Twenty One Pilots has entirely taken the controls. As Drum Show— the second single from the garden-fresh offering Breach unloosened last month — raspberries, charting a course; last June’s unbridle The Contract — a supercharged lead birdcall from the up-to-the-minute grind of genius pulsating cantabile — would mark the biggest song debut of the band’s career.
Thereupon, the bird’s-eye celestial orbit of the melody industry being the port of call; without any signs of debris or wreckage, there is seriously no way the aircraft steered by Twenty One Pilots — 40,000 feet leveling off under optimal high flow velocity — is vanishing from radar!
*Grant Notho Khumalo is a prolific writer, innovative media personality, entrepreneur and a creative artist who is passionate about using his creative mind for the betterment of society. Follow him on X: @TotemGrant
