Backxwash's favorite metal albums of 2020

Backxwash is the moniker for Ashanti Mutinta, a Zambian-born Canadian. The name not only encapsulates her music project but also an aesthetic that challenges contemporary hip-hop. Metal bands like Liturgy, Black Sabbath, Venom, Mayhem and Oranssi Pazuzu provide the inspirational soundscapes she needs to get the sound she is looking for: “People usually use 808s on top of guitar samples and that is how you get that metal feel, but I use samples to chop them up and layer sounds on top of them, and then use that 808 kick as percussion under it,” Mutinta explains. She also says that the drums from Nine Inch Nails’ “Reptile” come from a hip-hop mindset: “So many hip-hop artists have used that drum pattern.” [NPR]

Montreal industrial rapper Backxwash released her new album God Has Nothing To Do With This Leave Him Out Of It this year, and it’s one of the year’s most acclaimed albums, having won the Polaris Music Prize and landed on a few year-end lists so far. As pointed out in the NPR article quoted above, Backxwash’s music is often inspired by metal and is sometimes built on metal samples (she samples Black Sabbath’s eponymous song on the opening track of her new album), and she always has interesting opinions on metal, so it’s cool to learn that she has shared a list of her favorite metal albums of 2020. Here they are, in no particular order:

Oranssi Pazuzu – Mestarin kynsi
Vile Creature – Glory, Glory! Apathy Took Helm!
Code Orange – Underneath
Imperial Triumphant – Alphaville
Paysage d’Hiver – Im Wald
Liturgy – Origin of the Alimonies

Code Orange have been big supporters of Backxwash as well:

https://twitter.com/codeorangetoth/status/1323016069343227907

https://twitter.com/codeorangetoth/status/1322625777129717760

And that’s not the only mutual appreciation going on here:

For more 2020 metal lists, check out picks by Stephen Brodsky, Thou, Inter Arma, Spirit Adrift, Pallbearer, Sharptooth, and Strike Anywhere.

Stream God Has Nothing To Do With This Leave Him Out Of It: