Band:	Hex A.D.
Album:	Delightful Sharp Edges
Style:	Progressive doom metal, Hard rock
Release date:	May 12, 2023
A review by:	AndyMetalFreak

01. The Memory Division
02. Murder In Slow Motion
03. ...By A Thread
04. Når Herren Tar Deg I Nakken
05. Radio Terror
06. St. Francis
07. Throwing Down The Gauntlet
08. The Burmese Python
09. Beyond The Venom Trail
10. Hell Today
11. ...Gone Tomorrow

Looking for something experimentally mad, are we? Well, what about some delightfully sharp-edged progressive psychedelic doom rock brought to you by Hex A.D.?

In case you were wondering, Hex A.D. are a Norwegian doom metal band that formed back in 2011. Now, I can honestly tell you, that this is a band with an extraordinarily unique style compared to what other doom metal acts bring. This band mostly blends classic doom with retro 70s hard rock and psychedelic rock, all set within a progressive structure. With a large variety of instrumentation at their disposal, the band incorporates their own original ideas, with numerous influences, from Black Sabbath to Uriah Heep and Blue Öyster Cult.

Delightful Sharp Edges is the band's sixth full-length release, and has a total running time of 1 hour featuring 11 wildly different tracks, so it's certainly not short. The album kicks off with the opening twelve-minute-plus monster track, "The Memory Division". The track begins with a rather long proggy intro featuring a large portion of keyboards. There are several moments that stand out on this track, particularly at the beginning and end, but all-in-all it's actually quite unmemorable.

Throughout, the structure is actually quite hard to keep up with; it goes back and forth between psychedelic rock, hard rock, and classic doom. The rhythm and structure always remains proggy, and the tempo drastically changes multiple times throughout each track; you never know which way the album is going to turn. Fabulous guitar solos get thrown in from time to time, and during softer sections acoustic guitar will be present, such as on "Burmese Python", a slow-building track resembling a python slowly crushing its victim to death. The occasional spoken word is found, like on the short organ-based interval "St. Francis".

The fifth track "Radio Terror" is certainly one of the more unusual ones. It begins with a trippy keyboard intro and haunting, slow, soft male vocals, before oddly introducing tribal-like jungle jamming; then the striking lead guitars kick in, followed by heavy bass lines. The vocals become much more upbeat and the whole song turns into something completely different from how it all began. "Hell Today" is another track that I find striking; it's a serious mishmash of doom and psychedelic rock, with heavy riffs and a heavy keyboard presence, all in just shy of ten minutes. This song leads to the heaviest part of the entire album, where the outro features a deep heavy bass sound and low-toned guitar work distorted to high heaven, and you seemingly hear children playing in the background behind the music, which adds a creepy atmosphere to things.

Overall, it's safe to say Hex A.D. have certainly gone out there on this record. Delightful Sharp Edges can be a fun trip down memory lane for those wanting to reminisce about 70s hard rock. They bring to you all from what that era provides from early doom, to progressive rock, and a touch of psychedelic, whilst doing their part to keep it as original and fresh as possible. There will be moments of old-time glory, and moments that will make you go woah! It might get kinda ridiculous at some points, but always remains interesting and at entertaining at the very least.