Marking a new direction the band would follow in years to come,
Hex stands in stark contrast to Earth's previous works. While retaining the extremely heavy doom/drone metal song structure of epic riffs over simple repetitive drum beats, the guitar was inflected with country influences that favored a cleaner reverb-heavy tone layered with acoustic instruments over the band's previous predilection for distortion. The press release cited diverse influences such as
Ennio Morricone,
Billy Gibbons,
Neil Young's soundtrack to the movie
Dead Man, country musicians
Duane Eddy,
Merle Haggard, and
Roy Buchanan. Carlson indicated that he viewed this shift as part of a continuum rather than a categorical change in direction: The album was influenced by
Cormac McCarthy, particularly his novel
Blood Meridian. Every song title on the album is named after a phrase found in the text of the novel. Carlson commented that: Carlson said that "There's an arc to each song and an arc to the album, rather than just a collection of songs. There's silence and a sense of space to the music". The subtitle is from
William Blake's
The Marriage of Heaven and Hell. It was well received by fans of the band and critics alike despite the change in sound. When asked about the elimination of distortion, Carlson remarked: ==Reception==