Doja Cat’s Scarlet cover looks suspiciously familiar

Last night, Doja Cat shared details of her long-teased, forthcoming album. According to an Instagram post from Doja’s account, the record is titled Scarlet and is due out September 22. The post appears to give us our first concrete details of a project that has henceforth been shrouded in mystery. But, as is often the case with Doja, there’s a twist.

As Pop Crave noted overnight and Pitchfork reported earlier this afternoon, Dusty Ray’s cover art for the record is nearly identical to that of the German death metal band Chaver’s previously announced album Of Gloom, also due out the 22nd of next month. Posts by Ray indicate that he was responsible for both covers, though he hasn’t posted a clear statement to that effect.

The FADER has reached out to Ray, Chaver’s label (Beatdown Hardwear), and a representative of Doja Cat for answers to some of our burning questions on the matter: Did Doja and Chaver both commission pink tarantula cover art from Ray? Are Doja and Chaver aware of each other? Is Doja pivoting to death metal? Or, alternatively, is the whole thing an elaborate ruse?

If our last theory turns out to be true, it would not be the first time Doja has used misdirection in recent months. She claimed last year that her next album would be rave-inspired and, more recently, said it would be called Hellmouth and be “rap only.”

Earlier this year, she called all of her pop LPs “cash grabs” that her fans “fell for,” one of several occasions on which she openly mocked her supporters online. (She later refused to tell her fanbase she loved them, writing “i don’t even know yall” in an Instagram exchange with an agitated fan). The fallout from Doja’s disdainful comments led more than half a million fans to unfollow the apparently erstwhile pop star, an experience she said felt liberating for her, like “defeat[ing] a large beast.”