Welcome to Good Shit You Haven’t Listened To.

Today we’re going to take a look at the recently-ish released rehearsal tape from Vancouver heavy metal trio Twenty Million People. At the time of writing, this release has 347 views and 22 Likes on YouTube.

THAT’S A WHOLE LOT OF PEOPLE.

Going into this one with a disclaimer is somewhat necessary; I was introduced to Twenty Million People (hereby shortened to TWMP) in May of 2023 when we were supporting acts on a bill together at Bully’s. I gave their album “New Rome” a listen and was immediately blown away by them - their raw sound, tight playing, and intricate songwriting left a lasting impression on me and I immediately started sharing it with my fellow metalhead buddies. I think the words I used were: “CAN YOU BELIEVE WE’RE PLAYING WITH THESE GUYS?!”

We made a good connection with them at the show and since then have been in touch with them regularly. They’re great guys and we enjoy playing shows with them and they’ve shown great support for our work, so you may expect a touch of bias from this review, and I’m not going to pretend that my relationship with the band isn’t influencing my decision to cover their work.

However - and this is something that will become clear - if you know me personally, you know that I do not give undeserved compliments, and I am not above criticizing the work of people I’m connected with. I believe that proper critique is a crucial element to a thriving music scene, bringing attention to areas that could be better and praising things done well so that these artists can see what their work looks like to other people. All this to say: if I have any punches, I won’t be pulling them. And TWMP is a band that can take (and throw) a punch.

INTO THE REHEARSAL ROOM

“Live for No One” is an off-the-floor recording of the band playing, essentially, a 30 minute live set in their rehearsal space. The description for “Live for No One” reads:

"Live For No One" is our take on a rehearsal tape. It sort of willed itself into existence while we were talking about what we could use our rehearsal space for aside from, well, rehearsing. We talked about and very lightly planned it for a few days, then recorded everything in one sitting. We played for three hours, non-stop, no joint left unswollen. You’ll be watching the last hour. We used nothing special to record. Our mic and monitoring setup for audio, our phones for video. There’s little editing involved. Warts and all, like we said.

“Warts and all” is definitely an accurate descriptor - if you’re looking for a studio-level amount of post-production, time alignment, pitch correction, etc., you’re not going to find it here. Throughout the rehearsal tape there are a handful of instrumental flubs; sometimes a note comes too early or too late, a hi-hat hit will sneak in where it’s not wanted, or a vocal line will falter from perfect pitch. The songs do not flow into each other, leaving some space for the band to communicate with each other about the tempo for the next song or humorously rail on local music shops or what they had for dinner.

But I do not view this as a detriment. From my perspective, it is delightfully representative of the rehearsal spaces I’m familiar with. An air of collective goodwill and understanding is ever present between these three musicians, and even as they launch into brutally heavy passages they never lose the feeling of camaraderie between them. I would say it feels like “three guys hanging out making music” - and to some extent that is true - but that would, I think, undersell the level of professionalism and skill that they bring to their work. What I’ll say instead is that I deeply appreciate the authenticity that they’ve brought to the table, and that this release is, in fact, better with the warts left in - it reinforces the humanity of it all, and it “feels” like going to a TWMP live show.

Live for No One (A Rehearsal Tape) certainly lives up to its title and achieves the goal set out in the abstract. This release reminds me of the Quarantine Concert series that Devin Townsend put on - it brings the viewer into an intimate space with the artist, shining a light on the “behind the scenes” of it all. It can be easy to forget that for every great performance a band puts on there is hours and hours of rehearsal done in rooms like the ones TWMP occupies; places of work, with some creature comforts, but often only enough space to hold the things that allow them to do what needs to be done.

As a musician myself, I like this. I often find myself more interested in the process behind a work than the work itself, and releases like this scratch that itch for me.

The set list is great - there’s plenty here for fans of Gojira and other aughties metal titans to sink their teeth into; standouts for me being the Remission-era Mastodon-esque “Ghost of Joy”, and the tastefully melodic “Test Your Faith”. It’s a playlist that highlights the musical ability of each of the trio, to great effect - you don’t really ”hear the sweat” as they bulldoze through blistering passages. It becomes clear, very quickly, that these guys are very good at what they do.

One of the few places I’m going to dock marks for this is on the production side of things, and that’s because I’m a picky lil bitch more than anything. Overall I find the mix quite good - the guitar tone is appropriately crunchy, the drums cut through in double kick passages, the bass is delicious, and Bah and Brian’s vocals are well supported and sit nicely in the mix.

However, two things in particular stick out to me; the first being the sound of the hi-hat. When I first listened to this recording, I was driving, and I immediately took notice of a shrillness and ringing sound to the hat that wasn’t present on the other cymbals. I chalked this up to an error in my car’s audio system (I have it calibrated about where I want it, but I know it’s not perfect) or a flaw in my phone’s audio processing (it keeps turning ffffucking Atmos on every time it restarts and it RUINS EVERYTHING), so I made a mental note to check it out back on my home monitors and headphones. Sure enough, it still stuck out to me there.

Now, this I can place on my general tendency to dislike high frequency sound. A quick glance at any EQ curve of my work will show a distinct roll off of more higher frequencies, especially on drums. This is one of the many reasons why I will probably never get employed mixing trap music, where it seems (to me) like the producer’s main goal is to create the most annoying tick-tick-tick sound possible; in short, I am aware of my own biases here. But comparing this mix to TWMP’s studio releases confirms my suspicions that the hi-hat sticks out more here than in those.

And on the topic of full mixes, my second critique here is on the overall tone. It’s not bad, mind you! This is a well mixed recording overall, and it stands up on its own. Comparison, however, is the thief of joy, and A/Bing a track like “Test Your Faith” from the live recording to the single release reveals a noticeable low-mid push that, in my opinion, lessens the strength of the low end in the mix.

You may view this as me being nitpicky and unfair. To that second point, I think it perfectly fair to compare mixes of the same song from the same artist and prefer one over the other - it’s not as if I’m pitting them up against some group with millions of dollars in studio backing meticulously crafting a corporate approved mix. Bah Sarp produced both these mixes (and did a great job) - I just think one of them sounds better.

To the first point, I already told you I’m a picky lil bitch, and this is my stupid newsletter, so deal with it.

I’m not going to give this one a rating because I haven’t tuned my rating scale for live albums, yet - to be honest, I don’t usually like them. But that alone should tell you that this release is worth checking out, because this is a live album that I do enjoy. It is my personal, incredibly biased opinion that TWMP are making some of the best music in the Vancouver scene, and their live performances are worth making it out to, if you can; barring that, this recording serves as an appetizer of the passion, skill, and joy they bring to their work.

This is certified Good Shit™ and you ought to listen to it, as well as the rest of their offerings. Go check them out on Bandcamp, and watch the Live for No One rehearsal tape below.