New twenty one pilots on the horizon // breach

With the ending of the Clancy World Tour upon us, and the ever closing eye on their Instagram account closing off the back of the BFX celebration, the main theory for Twenty One Pilots was that they were going to disappear on another hiatus. However, we got a lot more than we bargained for - let's break down the build up to the Columbus two-piece's brand new studio album coming September 2025 Breach.

During the tour, some big lore related moments went down, mainly surrounding the characters of Clancy and Torchbearer. After the band left the narrative on the cliff-hanger of Paladin Strait, the live concert was promised to be a flash back, to fill in the holes and in the words of Tyler Joseph:

So we're not breaking any new ground, we're capturing some key moments in the build up to the final faceoff with Nico/Blurryface in the top of the tower, but this by no means meant that there wasn't any new insane revelations at these shows that are pretty key to where I think we're going next.

During the FPE fan event, in the Banditio section, every night showed a new letter, usually a two way conversation between characters existing within the universe of Dema. These weren't particularly important, except for the ones between the two main characters. The following one was from Torchbearer to Clancy:

Note the repetition of 'we' here. This is seemingly a pleading message, a reminder of where he came from, the people he has bonded with in the Banditos, and how their removal of the Bishops has to end the cycle. During the live show, Torchbearer appears, blazing torch in hand, and approaches Clancy, offering him his Bandito jacket, covered on the shoulders with his red rebellion tape. Clancy usually looks over, takes the jacket, and puts it on, showing his collaboration with Torchbearer and the rest of the Banditos - it's a reminder of what they're fighting for, and most importantly that they're on the same side. They walk to Dema together, and watch it burn shoulder to shoulder, as companions and friends.

However, as the nights went on, Clancy seemed more and more hesitant to take the jacket, taking longer to see it, to notice Torchbearer, to pull on his rebel red. This culminated in, on the final night of the tour, Clancy ignoring him completely, not taking the jacket entirely, and walking to Dema alone, holding his stole over his head. Torchbearer was left alone, and watched Dema burn by himself, the jacket in his hands, staring on alone. The leading theory seems to be this is a physical manifestation of Clancy being blinded by his own power - and that he too is becoming a bishop. Bishops famously can't see yellow, and the more he falls victim to their immense power, the less he can see Torchbearer, to the point where he's gone - supported by his screams of 'where are you?!' during their performance of Navigating. Clancy is now on his own, and when he later appeared in his jacket, and removed it to show Clancy in red, but was now in black - what's happened to him? Is he dead? Seized by a bishop? Smeared? And in the final FPE letter, it read this:

No use of 'we', just 'I' - and what more is that it was left in the burnt remains of the Bandito camp in the FPE. Fire is also an important piece of symbolism, with it seemingly spreading across the FPE and the live shows, and hold up another key piece of story and a leading theory - Dema isn't burning. Dema is made of concrete. Clancy is instead burning Trench around them. In their attempts to bring down Dema they've caused more losses in the Bandito camp, but every time they've come back to try again. Finally, when all is said and done, Clancy has made progress, but has caused too much damage to the place he once loved. Just something to think about.

When the Clancy Tour ended, the celebration of seminal record Blurryface took over all platforms. With that came a change of profile picture to an eyelid slowly closing over their last albums logo - similar to when Trench was announced. However, when the band posted their throwback clips filmed during the process of making and touring the record, the captions came with capitalised letters that slowly began to spell out words.

A lot of people thought it would spell out Torchbearer, and with the closing eyelid signify his screaming out for him as he dies at the hands of Blurryface. Even the last video posted by them has Josh digitally removed from it. Then, as the last video was released, the announcement came, along with a swift solve to the puzzle. Breach was coming in September, with the first single THE CONTRACT releasing in June. The letters spelt the name of the first single.

It didn't stop there however, as after this, the Blurryface twitter account became more and more active. Suddenly, it began posting some of the creepiest and foreboding lore more used to being in a found footage horror movie than anything else. They show snaoshots of Tyler in what looks to be a new video, and have Blurryface narrating over them. The first two contained the phrases:

I CHECK THE DOORS, CHECK THE WINDOWS,

THEN PULL THE BLINDS

PULL THE BLINDS

PULL THE BLINDS

PULL THE BLINDS

PULL THE BLINDS

I CHECK THE CLOCK

I CHECK THE CLOCK

WONDERING WHAT HE WILL PULL THIS TIME

WONDERING WHAT HE WILL PULL THIS TIME

After this, a video was posted of the group photos from the tours were posted, slowly turning clockwise, changing the orientation - we think in reference to East now being down instead of up, showing the defeat of the Banditos. After then, there were two more videos, with the words:

I HAVE A FEELING THAT NECROMANCER IS OUTSIDE

AND I'M JUST TRYING TO STAY QUIET

I WANT TO GET OUT THERE,

BUT I DON’T TRY

A lot of people have reversed the first video, with the voice instead saying:

Now the blue, now the blue, now the blue, now the blue has ruined you.

These maybe seem like lyrics, or a poem, but whatever it is it's spooky, and possibly hints at a tone shift in this new era. It's dark and gritty, and leaves the door wide open to some brand new and unexplained territory. How will this battle end? What will The Contract hold? All we can do is sit and wait for June 12th, so I'll see you then - and until then, I'm sure there will be more to see.