Click here to read the first part of this series, which focuses on the lore associated with Twenty One Pilots’ album “Trench.”
Twenty One Pilots is known for the in-depth lore attached to their albums. Here is everything you need to know about the lore attached to Scaled and Icy before the release of their new album Clancy.
Following the termination of the DMAORG website on April 2, 2021, live.twentyonepilots.com became available to the public. This site led to a control room which provided fans with various experiences in the lead-up to the release of their sixth studio album Scaled and Icy.
While outside of the lore, the band explains that the title Scaled and Icy is meant to be a play on the phrase “scaled back and isolated,” words frontman Tyler Joseph used to describe his experience during the COVID-19 lockdown. It is also an anagram for “Clancy is dead.” While it was later revealed that the character Joseph plays during the Scaled and Icy era is in fact Clancy, he is repeatedly referred to as Tyler.
The website was also the platform for Dema’s first-ever live experience, an event disguised as a way to entertain the VIPs of Dema when it was really meant to indoctrinate them. While he is referred to as Tyler throughout the stream, it is still Clancy, being called by a different name, who is the star.
Starting as a 70s-inspired morning show called “Good Day Dema,” the live stream is hosted by characters called Dan Lisden and Sally Sacarver (who aren’t alive, just Glorious Gone is possessed by the bishops using psychokinesis). The stream opened with Clancy looking completely miserable, sitting in between the two hosts who continuously mock him and Josh Dun (also known as the Torchbearer).
Throughout the stream, Josh and Tyler played a variety of songs from Scaled and Icy, as well as songs from past albums, but were often interrupted during songs that contained lyrics about rebellion. Throughout the stream, an infomercial segment promoted the album, but every time the hosts reappeared, they looked progressively more beat up, slowly decaying as their bodies were used by the bishops.
The stream continued, and with every passing moment, it became more and more chaotic. Toward the end, the band played their song “Car Radio,” during which alarms started to blare and the location switched, Clancy (Tyler) and the Torchbearer (Josh) playing on a street with burning cars and people who appeared to be running from something.
Following the end of “Never Take It,” Clancy (Tyler) returns to the set, where he is greeted by the hosts—who look completely normal again—and a clapping crowd.
Following the success of the live stream, the bishops hosted a party on a submarine with Clancy and the Torchbearer as their main performers. But halfway through the “Saturday” music video, Trash the Dragon (the album’s mascot) attacked the submarine, filling the ship with water and nearly drowning everyone. Clancy and the Torchbearer are shown to have survived with 19 other people from the ship. These are the events of the “Saturday” music video.
Following a year of silence, DMAORG updated, showcasing a brand-new map. This map of the continent of Trench introduced an island that had never been seen before, called Voldsøy.
A Norwegian word that roughly translates to “violence island,” Voldsøy is located just off the shore of Trench, separated by a small strip of ocean called the “Paladin Strait.” The island also plays home to a large population of small creatures called Ned whose name is an acronym for Neuro Expansion Device. As a reminder, their antlers provide the nine bishops with the power of psychokinesis, a ritual that allows them to possess the dead bodies of the Glorious Gone.
Soon after “The Outside” music video was released, where it was revealed that Keons, one of the nine bishops, had used psychokinesis to possess Trash the Dragon, making him the culprit of the attack against the submarine. Keons is killed by the other bishops for this deed.
Following the death of Keons, Clancy and the Torchbearer wash up on Voldsøy and meet a group of Neds who provide Clancy with the ability to use psychokinesis. Clancy uses this newfound power to possess the dead body of Keons and start a fire in Dema. Awaiting rescue on the island, Clancy and the Torchbearer spot the lights from the torches from the rest of the Banditos across the Paladin Strait.
While Scaled and Icy was not received particularly well by the band’s fan base, with many thinking it strayed too far from Twenty One Pilots’ typical sound, the music videos associated with the record expertly expanded on the story the band had set up in Trench. This era added so much to the lore that it would be incredibly difficult to simply skip over it before moving on to the world of the upcoming record Clancy.
This article is part of an ongoing in-depth look at the lore associated with the albums “Trench” and “Scaled and Icy” in the run-up to Twenty One Pilots’ newest album. The next article in this series will cover the lore associated with the brand-new music video “Overcompensate,” a single from the upcoming album “Clancy.” To remain updated on this series, stay tuned to The Brock Press.
