Headless Cross - Album Information

Album Information

Laurence Cottle played bass on the recording on a session-basis but was never an official band member. Cottle did appear in the video for the title track, but was not featured in any promotional photos. For the tour, the line-up was completed by Whitesnake and Gary Moore bassist Neil Murray also known from the Queen musical We Will Rock You.

Headless Cross was praised among critics and fans, being considered the best Sabbath album in years and is an album of which both Martin and Tony Iommi are very proud. The lyrics on the album have predominantly Satanic and occult elements, arguably the only time in the band's career where an entire album is based on such ideals rather than select songs. Sales-wise, the album and tour did very well in the U.K. and in Europe. Sales in the U.S. were low, leading to the curtailment of the tour. In interviews, the band cited lack of promotion of the live dates to have been the problem. The album spent eight weeks on the Billboard 200 chart where it peaked at number 115.

The track "When Death Calls" has a guitar solo by Queen guitarist Brian May.

According to the sleeve notes, the cover was designed by Kevin Wimlett. The U.K. sleeve was in black-and-white, whilst the German release added colour.

The song "Call of the Wild" was originally going to be titled "Hero", but when Ozzy Osbourne used that title on his album No Rest for the Wicked, Tony Iommi opted to change its title. "Devil & Daughter" also had the original title "Devil's Daughter", but was changed for the same reason.

"Call of the Wild" and "Devil & Daughter" are also the only songs that do not end slowly fading out with Tony Martin ad-libbing (though "Nightwing" has only the band performing fading out with no ad-libbing on Martin's part).

For the live show in support of this album, "Ave Satani", the main theme from Jerry Goldsmith's Oscar-winning soundtrack for The Omen, was used as the intro tape, beginning as the house lights went down. This would then segue into a taped recording of "The Gates of Hell" before the band would begin the show with "Headless Cross". This intro-tape of "Ave Satani/The Gates of Hell" was used as many times during various tours over the years up until the Reunion shows. "Headless Cross" would be played on all subsequent tours when Tony Martin was in the band but the only other track from the "Headless Cross" album to last beyond that tour was "When Death Calls".

"Headless Cross" yielded two radio singles; an edit of the title track and "Devil & Daughter". The former was available as a 7", personally signed by Iommi, and a 12" poster-sleeve, this latter being limited to 2,500 copies.

"Devil & Daughter" was released as a 7" picture disc, a 12 picture-sleeve, and a 7" box-set, containing the single, some postcards and a stencil of the band's logo.

The bonus track "Cloak and Dagger" was the B-side to the "Headless Cross" single, and was later on the vinyl picture disc edition. At this time, the only CD versions of the "Headless Cross" edit and of "Cloak and Dagger" were on separate promotional CDs and on a rare 2010 Japanese vinyl replica sleeve remaster of the album

The first recording of "Black Moon" was a B-side to a single of The Eternal Idol, performed in a different key.

Reportedly, according to Tony Martin, the vocals on "Nightwing" were actually the original guide vocals but for whatever reason were kept in the final recording.

"Headless Cross" is about a part of a town south of Sabbath's native Birmingham, Headless Cross in Redditch, and is reportedly named after all the church crosses were defaced during the plague that struck the town's inhabitants centuries earlier. (See: Districts of Redditch)

The disc is currently out of print. However, the album will be re-released in deluxe format "in due course" once a new record deal has been negotiated covering all the albums formerly released through I.R.S. Records.

Tony Martin currently tours with a live band named after the album, going by the name of "Tony Martin's Headless Cross". They include another former Black Sabbath member, Geoff Nicholls.