Trench is the fifth studio album by the American musical duo Twenty One Pilots, released on October 5, 2018, through Fueled by Ramen and Elektra Records.

Recorded in secret during a year-long public silence, it is a concept album which explores mental health, suicide, and doubt, themes prominently featured in the band's previous works, framed in the metaphorical city of Dema and the surrounding continent known as "Trench".

To promote the album, the band embarked on the Bandito Tour, which began at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee on October 16, 2018, and concluded at the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago, Illinois on December 13, 2019.

[5] It is unclear when production of Trench began; however, lead singer Tyler Joseph was working on the track "Bandito" as early as 2015, during the Blurryface Tour.

[7] Mutemath frontman and keyboardist Paul Meany co-produced and co-wrote much of the project, following his previous collaboration with Twenty One Pilots for the TOPxMM remix EP and on the Emotional Roadshow World Tour.

[10] No one other than Joseph, Dun, and Meany were involved in the songwriting process for the album in order to eliminate any effect a family member, friend or colleague could have on the final form of the record's content through their comments.

"[11] In a later interview with The New York Times, he recounted how the project "almost destroyed" him, leading him to consider ending all work on it, as his emotional state "whiplashed" between self-deprecation and self-confidence.

[8] Much of the album and its marketing material discusses the city of "Dema", a fictional location set within Trench that draws its name from dakhma, or "Tower of Silence", in Zoroastrianism.

[25] It was described by Rolling Stone as having "distorted bass guitar, crisp drumming and dark washes of synth" with Joseph's vocals building from "a near-whisper to a full-throated scream, to an atmospheric falsetto.

[21] Lyrically, the track explores suicide and its glorification by the media and ends with a plea to admire those who have gone through life, not those who have chosen an earlier grave.

[20][34][46] "Cut My Lip" is about the willingness to persevere even when times are hard, and also discusses Joseph's struggle between staying true to himself and giving into the demands of the music industry.

[48] "Pet Cheetah" is a song that blends the rap, techno and rock genres and is a metaphor for the songwriting process and writer's block.

[13] The final track, "Leave the City", features slightly restrained vocals, a strong piano segment, and light drumming.

Joseph explains this as representing the concept that "Trench" is a journey between one place (Dema) and whatever comes next, which mirrors how mental illness is an ongoing struggle that one needs to keep working at.

On July 6, following a journal entry promising that "by morning, everything will be different",[59] the band sent an e-mail containing a GIF of a slightly opened eye to fans who subscribed to their newsletter.

[8] On September 14, 2018, Twenty One Pilots announced on Twitter that they would be releasing a yellow colored vinyl LP exclusive to their online store.

[69] Josh Dun hosted a livestream on Instagram with Tyler Joseph the following day to promote the album and addressed this leak.

[75] In December 2018, the band partnered with music streaming service Spotify to create an immersive video experience exploring the world of "Trench", which also revealed the meaning of the five symbols featured on the album cover underneath the track listing.

[62][83][84][85][86] The third single off the album, "Levitate", was leaked onto the streaming platform Tidal prior to its official release in August, only to quickly be removed.

The leak was confirmed real when the band made the song available on streaming services later that day, as the album's fourth single.

[113] Trench debuted at number two on the US Billboard 200 behind the soundtrack for A Star Is Born, with 175,000 album-equivalent units, of which 135,000 were pure album sales.

[134] Gary Ryan of NME described the record as "the sound of a band ratcheting up the ambition without ever being pulled down by an undertow of pretentiousness," adding that "it's more low-key than Blurryface, but ultimately more rewarding;" he also opined that though "the narrative... doesn't overwhelm," Joseph's songwriting is "most affecting when he steps beyond any concept straight-jacket.

"[41] Neil Z. Yeung acclaimed the album's introspective lyrics in his review for AllMusic, summarizing that "although Trench requires a few spins to really register, it's ultimately rewarding and fully immersive, delivering a depth and gravity at which Twenty One Pilots only hinted on Blurryface.

"[136] Billboard writer Chris Payne considered Trench "surprisingly cohesive" and complimented its "outstanding sequencing and production continuity," concluding that it "matches the stakes of Blurryface and all its demon-conquering, genre-blurring catharsis, while raising it one on the sonic universe holding it all together.

"[36] Similarly, Rolling Stone's Christopher Weingarten stated that the array of genres and ideas found on Blurryface had "coalesced into a smarter, more mature whole" on Trench, additionally noting its "more cohesive sound and feel" and the duo's growth "as songwriters and arrangers.

"[27] Conversely, Damon Taylor of Dead Press wrote that "a plethora of influences are splashed across the record, giving their core sound a new distinction," and additionally praised Dun's drumming, writing that he "pushes the pace of each track with reserve and intensity in equal measure.

"[131] David Hayter of 411 Mania considered that "mythos laden concept album Trench might struggle to consistently fire on all cylinders, but the good far out weighs the bad, making for a thoughtful and sonically daring experience.

"[129] Chris Willman, writing for Variety, found the album to be at its best when the songs "ditch the characters and concept and just have Joseph directly saying what he means," adding: "take my recommendation and forget about the most deeply conceptual parts of this concept album — which just seems like a lot of work — and enjoy the many parts of Trench that don't require a thirst for symbolic origin stories.

"[21] Conversely, Stephen Keegan of Hot Press opined that "in today's 'stan culture', Joseph's clever breadcrumbing of lyrical clues allows fans to bond over their shared community – and will have obsessives debating on Genius.com for months.

"[133] GIG Soup wrote highly positively of the album's "personal" songwriting, claiming that "Twenty One Pilots are discussing topics others are afraid to, and they are doing it right.