Twenty One Pilots fans woke up to some exciting news on Thursday morning (February 22), when the band released a four-minute video full of Easter eggs teasing the next, and perhaps final, chapter in the story that began with their discovery in 2015 album Blurry face.
“Next week, a new chapter begins,” read the caption on the “I Am Clancy” video that served as a recap for Blurry's entire saga.
“I'm trapped,” singer Tyler Joseph says in voiceover over video footage that helped tell the twisted, future-shock story of the allegorical walled city of Dema, the Banditos and the nine iron-fisted bishops who won't let the residents escape. . “I got stuck in a cycle that I could never break. I want to think it's the last time, I don't know for sure. I'll start with what I know.”
Joseph then tells the story of an escapee from the “circular concrete city” of Dema, who has seen some of the vast surrounding wild, green trenches of the continent, but continues to be captured by the red robe known as Niko, aka as Blurryface. The rest of the twisted story touches on the nine bishops' “miraculous power and theft of religion” as the source of their power, based on the theory of self-destruction as the only path to heaven.
The lore then becomes even tighter, touching on bishops' use of a power called “possession,” which allows them to take control of the dead for short periods. It's a power only they have… well, except for the narrator, the runaway, who is an exception to the rule and has the power. After tricking Nico into taking him out of the walls and escaping once more, he was caught and returned, but not before getting a glimpse of the legendary outlaws Banditos, characters featured in videos for “Jumpsuit” and “Nico and the Niners” by Trench.
The recitation then turns to 2021 Scaled and frozen album, whose more mainstream, pop-oriented material is described as the Bishops' attempt to make the hero more palatable and fun, as seen in the videos for the singles “Shy Away”, “Choker” and “Saturday”. Long story short, Nico was betrayed, the narrator escaped again and ended up in a new place, the island of Voldsoy, where he was given the gift of the same powers as the Bishops. “I'm back in the Trench… I'm Clancy,” she says at the end.
It's a lot, as evidenced by one comment on the video, which read: “I've been trying to understand this tradition for 6 years and you guys really explained it all in 4 minutes.”
In a 2019 interview with album-theres-definitely-end-game-2456640″ target=”_blank”>NMEJoseph hinted that the 2018 sequel Trench album — the folk inclination Scaled and frozen, which had not yet been announced at the time — would continue the sci-fi-like rebel saga. “There is definitely an end game. There is a story. I think I was very specific that there is a reason why the record ends [the song] 'Leave The City' and the song itself is kind of a cliffhanger,” he had said at the time. “I mean, the whole point was that it's setting up for the next one, and it would be silly not to at least resolve what we've already started.”
It wouldn't be 21P without some additional, puzzling clues, which reportedly include the unexplained addition of red tape strips on the band's album covers on streaming services, as well as in letters sent to fans by “Holy Municipality of Dimas” with maps, urls and pages labeled “EVIDENCE” and enigmatic billboards around the world with the band logo.
Additional information about the band's next move was not available at press time.
Check out the 'I Am Clancy' video below.
from our partners at https://www.billboard.com/music/rock/twenty-one-pilots-next-chapter-am-clancy-video-recap-blurryface-1235613321/
