Album Review: Hoaxed - "Death Knocks"

It takes a minute.  Do that thing that’s so hard to do in our modern society of up-to-the-minute shitposting and instant gratification and new, uniquely unfulfilling content around every rhythmic click of the second hand.  

Be patient.

That’s how you’ll get the most out of Portland’s Hoaxed and their new album Death Knocks.  Don’t look for the big bang, the rumbling earthquake, the thundering catharsis.  There’s a certain kneejerk desire to compare Hoaxed to, say, Royal Thunder, and while there are similarities, that comparison is a misstep.  Hoaxed wins by playing the long game.  This is, if it can be said, low-fi dark rock beats for the discerning ear.

Instead, listen for the quiet, defeated desperation of Kat Keo’s vocals, the slow burn, the simmering boil that the album employs again and again.  Be patient.  It’ll come.  Give the record two complete listens.  Three.  Six.  Close your eyes, ignore the distractions.  Put your phone away and get lost in the swirling sea of the record as it takes the first three songs to build to the crescendo of the fourth, “The Fallen.”  You read that right - it takes more than ten minutes and three songs of clever layering, brooding harmony and slowly building might to get to the album’s first release point.  

There’s an interlude called “Looking Glass” (sadly, not a cover of the sublimely excellent song of the same name by Cave of Swimmers, which I bring up only because I would ADORE it if Hoaxed sank their fangs into it and came up with their version,) and even that interlude is crafted and thoughtful and an inexorable piece of the whole.  It’s haunting and cinematic and tangentially reminiscent of the work Goblin did for Dario Argento in the late ‘70s (watch Suspiria.  Thank me later.)

All that, all that just to get to the album’s best song, “Dead Ringer.”  The cut rolls out with an Iommi-ian riff, and then bridges into something dark and staccato and threatening, until the chorus erupts into a strained, chaotic singalong.  It’s one of the few choruses on the album that does so, which makes it stand out all the more.  If you’ll pardon the vernacular, it’s so damn cool.  Hoaxed shows us a glimpse of their power in a way that would make last year’s darling Year of the Cobra look at each other and say “maybe we need a guitarist.”

There are no bad songs on Death Knocks. No wasted space.  If there is a criticism that’s fair to levy at all, it’s what we discussed in the opening part of this piece - the listener must be patient with Death Knocks.  It’s not going to explode out of the speakers at you.  That’s not how it’s designed, not what the band is going for, and not what Keo’s vocals are meant for.  There are calculated moments of power, like “Dead Ringer,” “Kill Switch,” or the outro of “Where the Seas Fall Silent,” but Hoaxed purposefully doesn’t show that hand all the time.  If you’re looking for an adrenaline fix in your rock, best move along.

If you have the patience and the right ear for it, though, Death Knocks is a deeply rewarding album that should have something novel and enjoyable to offer for fans of all the bands we’ve already mentioned, plus Blood Ceremony, Type O Negative, Ghost, Nim Vind, and you get the idea.  

But be patient.  Close your eyes.  Breathe in your nose, out through your mouth, and wait for the music to come to you.  It will.