It was issued in August 1970 by Mercury Records in the United States as just Uriah Heep with different sleeve artwork (a centipede type monster), and with the track "Bird of Prey" in place of "Lucy Blues".

[5] Tracks 3 and 8 were recorded as Spice songs prior to the band's renaming as Uriah Heep, and featured session player Colin Wood on keyboards.

The album was generally panned by the mainstream critical press upon its release, although it has since been acknowledged as an early classic of the heavy metal genre.

[6] Canadian music critic Martin Popoff classifies the album as "proto-heavy metal".

[10] Rolling Stone magazine's Melissa Mills began her review by saying, "If this group makes it I'll have to commit suicide.