Headless Cross is the fourteenth album by heavy metal band Black Sabbath, released in April 1989.
This is the band's second album to feature singer Tony Martin and the first to feature drummer Cozy Powell.
Laurence Cottle played bass on the recording on a session-basis but was never an official band member.[citation needed] 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 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.[citation needed] 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.[citation needed] The album spent eight weeks on the Billboard 200 chart where it peaked at number 115.