Headless Cross is the fourteenth studio album by English heavy metal band Black Sabbath.

[7] Iommi asked British drummer Cozy Powell – who had played with Jeff Beck, Rainbow, MSG and Whitesnake, among others – if he wanted to join Sabbath.

[7] Iommi and Nicholls had originally thought to bring Ronnie James Dio back or again ask David Coverdale to join the band, but Powell convinced him to keep Martin on.

Conceptually, the lyrics have predominantly occult and Satanic elements; arguably the only time in the band's career where an entire album is based on such ideas rather than select songs.

[7] "'Black Moon' was written with Tony Iommi, Geoff Nicholls, Eric Singer and Dave Spitz," noted Martin.

The Headless Cross tour started in the summer of 1989 with a brief run of 10 shows in North America with Kingdom Come and Silent Rage opening.

[9] In September the band played 10 more dates in the UK and continued to mainland Europe ending in Germany in early October.

[10] December dates in Poland, Czechoslovakia and East Germany were tentatively scheduled but did not materialize due to political unrest in the then-Communist states.

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.

Black Sabbath were one of the first bands to tour Russia, in 1989, after Mikhail Gorbachev opened the country to western acts.

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 the time of the album's release, the only CD versions of the "Headless Cross" edit and of "Cloak and Dagger" were on separate promotional CDs.

In short, for those wise enough to appreciate Black Sabbath's discography beyond the Osbourne and Dio essentials, there can be no better place to start than Headless Cross or its worthy predecessor, The Eternal Idol".