“I THINK GENRE lines are blurring all the time,” says Montreal-based rapper Backxwash. “Experimentation is crucial for every genre these days. I think back to someone like Screaming Jay Hawkins and wonder what it would be like to see a modern equivalent of that now and try and make it happen. He was melding all genres, never apologising for it, and scaring people at the same time.”
The conversation about what defines ‘metal’ has raged on since it was invented back at the start of the 1970s. Is metal just defined by a sound? Or can it also be defined by an attitude: an unwillingness to compromise yourself, no matter the cost? If the latter is the case, then Backxwash is the most metal artist you’ll hear in 2020.