BACKXWASH - "Only Dust Remains" Album Review

Zambian born, Montreal based rapper-producer Backxwash gifted us with an original trilogy of releases between 2020 and 2022, all suspended in the ghost haunted space between spiritual freedom and harsh realism, depicting the depth of hell and heavens as two sides of the same coin. In these obscure monoliths, she stages her sacrifices and challenges with her heritage, queerness, faith, and identity. Her records are inspired by hip-hop, traditional African music, black metal, neo-folk, prog-rock, drone, hardcore, blackgaze, and horrorcore.

"Only Dust Remains" definitely lingers in the terrifying yet liberating aura of its predecessors.

Needless to say, this is an artist I always get excited about. If you could mesh the ritualistic folklore of Tristwch Y Fenywod, with the sacred self-immolating language of Lingua Ignota, and the explosive aggression and digital intricacies of Clipping, you would get something close to this album. However, this is not necessarily the sound of an artist finding a new set of aesthetics to play with for the sake of being different. This is still deeply rooted into the hip hop tradition, and it is an adventurous personal evolution.

The first song, Black Lazarus, is an unapologetic look at suicidal ideation through the juxtaposition of alienation versus salvation. Sonically speaking, the new tracks are generally less explosive, as she effectively replaces hardcore segments with more evocative synths and jazzy rhythmic lines. As “Black Lazarus” approaches its closing, her vocals grow more insistent and haunting. Again, rather than pivoting into a noise-fest, the music unfolds elegantly like a cinematic ambient soundtrack.

In "History Of Violence" the perspective repeatedly switches between micro and macro, as Backxwash casts her socio-political spell through gothic scorching overtures, an armour of metal drums, unpredictable prog-rock tangents, and prompt lyrical critiques of global corruption and genocide. She harshly condemns the world’s leaders using freedom as a bartering chip. Her narrative smoothly transitions from "the self" to "the global", constantly opposing them. Is this perhaps one of the most interesting aspects of this new album? There is almost an element of inner guilt in doing so and focusing so much on the "self" while so much horror keeps happening in the world.

“9th Heaven” is an electric crossroads of anxiety, as Backxwash’s flow unravels around a howling vocal sample. Piano notes twirl like pirouettes, as she summons a “drummer coming,” programming beats into a Biblical ecstasy evoked through mentions of the archangel Gabriel and Adam eating the apple. "Life is only fragile as your battles, so you can ask Adam why he chose the apple".

“Love After Death” holds angular strokes of electronica framed by graceful touches of piano. The latter is especially evocative and sensorially effective, as a woman speaks about “the question of love” being “the question of what to do” .

"Only Dust Remains" is a courageous uncompromising album that doesn't hide in the shadows. In fact, the only shadows to be found here are in its bleak obscure tones. Is there a glimmer of hope left? Isn't that always the obvious question. Despite its jazzy lighter undertones, this album didn't leave me with a sense of hope, and that's ok. All in all, it is an accurate portrait of our times and the internal struggle within this generation who feels more and more powerless by the day.

Backxwash is without question one of the most interesting and emotionally devastating artists making music today and this album is perhaps the finest example of it yet. 

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