Hexx "Quest for Sanity": Bleeding Priest's Bay Area Metal Spotlight 17

Greetings everybody and welcome to another edition of Bleeding Priest’s Bay Area Metal Spotlight. For this edition, I’m going to be talking about a band that really fascinates me. The musical trajectory of this band’s career just blows me away. They sounded different on every single album they put out—at least in the early days. This band is Hexx.

They hail from the East Bay, I think from Point Richmond or the Richmond area. I don’t know that for certain, but I think they were from Point Richmond, which is kind of like the nicer, fancier part of Richmond, California. Again, don’t quote me on that.

But these guys were sick. They played lots of local shows. I only got to see them a couple of times since they didn’t play San Francisco too often. One time I remember seeing them at the Omni with Sadus, and they fit perfectly with Sadus around this era of the band.

The Early Years

Hexx formed in the late ’70s, around 1979. Their first album, No Escape, came out in 1983 or 1984 on Shrapnel Records. At the time, they were a total U.S. power metal, speed metal kind of band.

They didn’t really fit the mold of Shrapnel Records though. Shrapnel was known for guitar virtuosos—solo albums by shredders, drum masters, that “look at me” style where everyone is showing off.

I love Shrapnel Records and those albums, but Hexx was different. They were more of a real band. Their guitarists were killer, but they weren’t the typical Shrapnel shredders. Shrapnel wasn’t known for putting out full band albums, it was usually solo projects, but No Escape broke that mold.

Their image fit the era perfectly. Spandex, full-on early ’80s power metal sound and look.

The Shift Into Thrash

Two years later, they released Under the Spell. The changes from record to record are phenomenal—you wouldn’t even know it was the same band. This second album leaned more toward thrash than speed metal. It still had traditional heavy metal qualities, but it was definitely moving into Bay Area thrash territory.

Then came the Quest for Sanity EP, about a year later. This is my favorite era of the band. They went full-blown into thrash metal. Not just normal thrash, but brutal, borderline death metal. They were one of the early examples of death thrash.

Hexx played lots of shows with Sadus, and the two bands fit together perfectly.

They eventually put out Morbid Reality, which was full-on death metal. They went all the way. Of all the Bay Area bands, I can’t think of another that transformed so drastically in such a short time.

There’s even a split among Hexx fans—some prefer the earlier traditional heavy metal material, others the death thrash era. When I saw them live, it was during the brutal thrash period, so that’s the version of the band I knew first. Later I heard the early albums and honestly didn’t like them at all. I thought, “What the fuck is this?” But over time I’ve grown to dig it. Now I love their early stuff too, though at first it threw me a curveball.

Later Years and Rare Finds

I believe Hexx is still around. They put out a full-length in 2017, and they’ve been playing shows in Europe. When Death Angel toured there a few years ago, I kept seeing Hexx on the same festival posters. Awesome to see them still active.

I actually bought Quest for Sanity at a record store called Force of Habit in the Mission, San Francisco. It’s gone now, but back then the owner wasn’t much of a metalhead. I don’t think he knew what he had. The copy I bought came with the Watery Graves 12-inch tucked inside, and the price was low. Total score.

That release has them going full-on death metal, with some B-side re-recordings of earlier heavy metal tracks done in a thrash/death style. Wild Rags Records put it out—a label known in the late ’80s and early ’90s for underground thrash and demo-level vinyl.

Whether Watery Graves was meant to be included with the EP or was just slipped in, I have no idea. But as an extra disc? Fuck yeah.

So, check out Hexx. Depending on your mood, you can go for different eras. If you want traditional power metal, hit the early albums. If you want brutal and aggressive, go for the later stuff. Either way, it’s killer.

See you next week.

–Bleeding Priest