Backxwash – Only Dust Remains | Album Review

Backxwash balances the dark and the light on the first record since her critically acclaimed trilogy.

Only Dust Remains is underground industrial hip hop heavyweight Backxwash’s first album in three years, coming after the acclaimed trilogy of God Has Nothing to Do With This Leave Him Out of It (2020), I Lie Here Buried With My Rings and My Dresses (2021), and His Happiness Shall Come First Even Though We Are Suffering (2022). Focusing heavily on identity, spirituality, and her own personal journey, all the albums were intense and dark, yet cathartic expressions. This album does not reject the history of the trilogy, but is not more of the same.

Coming from her previous work, the lack of distortion and booming 808s can seem disorientating. ‘Black Lazarus’ still has the same doom laden poetry of her previous work, but being laden with 80s sounding saw wave synths and electric pianos, this feels less like a descent into a personal hell and more of a bearing of the soul, an honest opening up for judgement, and forgiveness. This isn’t the oppressive claustrophobia that was intrinsic to the last albums.

The lighter shades on the production don’t reflect the lyrics. There’s more acknowledgement of getting out, of getting over the previous anguishes and trials, but the light at the end of the tunnel is still slightly out of grasp. There is still catharsis throughout, and the guitar solos from previous collaborator Micheal Go give that final leap on tracks like ‘Wake Up’ and ‘Dissociation’. There is catharsis at the end of ‘History of Violence’, after a rallying call to action. The outros on this album are outstanding, and consistently uplift, and feel like the clouds parting.

Brazilian artists are sampled throughout – ‘Wake Up’, ‘9th Heaven’, ‘History of Violence’ – and although are not directly from the gospel tradition, there is still the same power behind them. There is an overcurrent of ‘worship’ in the production, and that builds throughout the project. There is a change in the lyrical tone as well – although just as intense, the power is directed outwards.

There is a light at the end of the tunnel, there is something better, whether it’s found within yourself or within another power. It would be easy to bunch this in with the works of Lingua Ignota/The Reverend Kristin Michael Hayter, but although the religious themes & motifs are a similarity, there isn’t the same oppressiveness. ‘Only Dust Remains’ feels freeing. There is a step forward.

This is not the same Backxwash that released her last critically acclaimed albums, and this isn’t just in relation to artistic development. This isn’t industrial hip hop – although methods and positioning of sampling call from that world, this is a divergence. This is not the sound of someone finding a new genre, a new scene, or a new set of aesthetics to play with. This is still deeply within the hip hop tradition, and it is a personal and artistic progression. Having a project like this from a trans artist is rare, and generally less publicised. Will this be as recognised and the darker side?