Black Sabbath is the debut studio album by English heavy metal band Black Sabbath. Released on 13 February 1970 in the United Kingdom, and later on 1 June 1970 in the United States, the album reached number eight on the UK Albums Chart and has been recognised as one of the main albums to be credited with the development of the heavy metal genre.

The album cover features a depiction of Mapledurham Watermill, situated on the River Thames in Oxfordshire, England. Standing in front of the watermill is a figure dressed in black.[7] The silhouette of a raven is visible among the trees on the back cover. On the original release, the inner gate-fold sleeve featured an inverted cross with a poem written inside of it. Vertigo, the band’s UK record label, were allegedly responsible for adding the cross. Allegedly, the band were upset when they discovered this, as it fuelled allegations that they were Satanists or Occultists. Although, in Osbourne’s recent biography, “I Am Ozzy”, he says that to the best of his knowledge that nobody was upset with the inclusion. The album was not packaged with a gate-fold cover in the U.S