HOAXED Details The Inspirations Behind Their New Record, Death Knocks

Portland, Oregon dark rock trio Hoaxed will release their new record Death Knocks on February 13. Hoaxed recorded Death Knocks at Falcon Recording Studios with producer and engineer Gabe Johnston (Unto Others, Vintersea) and enlisted Arthur Rizk (Power Trip, Kreator, and more,) for mixing and mastering. While you can pre-order the record right here, we also caught with Hoaxed to discuss the inspirations beind the album!

Tamamo-no-Mae (9 tails)

There’s this great legend about the nine-tailed fox, called Tamamo-no-Mae in the Japanese rendition. She was a wickedly smart, beautiful woman who infiltrated multiple courts over the centuries using her wit and charm to gain influence and power, before being discovered and cast out. Her spirit was eventually contained in a boulder by a buddhist priest – called The Killing Stone. In 2022, it was reported that the stone had split – and people speculated that her spirit had been released after 900 years.

We’re always fascinated by the vilification of powerful women – stories in which intimidating women are punished for their drive. Was she really evil or just ambitious? Either way: if she truly has been released, she will absolutely be out for vengeance. We explored these ideas in “The Killing Stone” lyrics. This song felt like a fitting way to close out the record too – with inevitable death knocking via her vengeance.

Furiosa

Speaking of motivated women – we were inspired by the Mad Max character Furiosa to write “Kill Switch”. Furiosa is such an inspiring character – While she’s absolutely a woman, her gender is never presented as something that holds her back. The other movie characters don’t treat her the way women are typically treated in these types of stories. They respect and revere here. Her story is so powerful and unique in the landscape of action films. We love the themes of control, agency, and self worth that the movie puts forth – all things we used for inspiration for writing “Kill Switch”.

Mercy Brown (aka America’s Last Vampire)

After passing away from consumption at the age of 19 in 1892, Mercy Brown was suspected by family and villagers of vampirism. They thought she was sucking the lives out of her family, who were unexpectedly dying of this mysterious illness. Their solution? They exhumed her body, cut out & burned her heart to end her wicked killing spree. Mercy was reburied in an unmarked grave away from the other deceased family members. Unfortunately, more family members passed in the same manner after this ritualistic burning, thus debunking the vampire theory, or did it??

While we were on tour with Wolves in the Throne Room, Blackbraid and Gaerea, we learned of the burial site of Mercy Brown. A drunk man at 10am posing as the caretaker of the site (it’s a long story) told us where her real grave was located and we are pretty sure he pointed us in the right direction. If you’re ever in Exeter, Rhode Island, check it out – look for the initials MB. We had a very interesting visit – it was one of the stand out memories from that tour and something we referenced frequently when creating this album.

Mausoleums

Nothing enhances an old cemetery more than a decaying mausoleum. Whether it’s a single standout or grouping of many, the varying styles of mausoleums around the world have played into the inspiration for the Death Knocks album cover art – crafted by April. From our local showstopper at Lone Fir Cemetery in Portland, OR to the First Cemetery in Athens, Greece, to Medieval Gothic church/castle architecture across Europe, these structural stylings are baked into the design and brought our album cover to life.

Cello

“Looking Glass” all started from playing around with the cello melody written for Dead Ringer. Kat and Kim knocked ideas back and forth over text while Kim and April were traveling through Greece and Turkey, but it was all abstract until we reunited and could actually brought it to life. As Kim was writing, the day was dark and the rain was pouring outside, which became the initial inspiration for the instrumental track.

She envisioned a funeral procession, starting out with a dredging march through the mud, people speaking words about the afterlife while the rain patters on the casket… an attempt to make the parting beautiful, but then what happens once we close the mausoleum doors? Is the afterlife really resurrection? What if the resurrection was not something comforting, but something sinister? Which leads us into “Dead Ringer”…

Haunted Mirror

Kat has a haunted mirror in her basement bathroom. It was there when she moved in – but it’s not a permanent fixture, which suggests that the people who lived there before her left it intentionally. Perhaps out of fear. The mirror has antique fogging around the edges and a general vibe of foreboding, especially at night – There are definitely entities behind the glass. Reflections seem to shift in unnatural ways in your periphery, suggesting they aren’t attached to the mirror gazer – but something on the other side.

Kat wrote “Dead Ringer” about the mirror – about what lies behind the glass and what intentions they may have. Crafting the song and lyrics allowed her to face those ideas and quantify the fear. By the time we had the song recorded, the vibes in that room had shifted. It’s no longer a terrifying item, but something we’ve addressed, explored, and called out. It feels much more manageable now.