More than twenty years before Black Sabbath’s masterpiece Heaven & Hell, there was already another Heaven & Hell in England, released in June 1969 by the psychedelic hard rock band Harsh Reality on the multinational label Philips. Their only album, produced by Fritz Fryer and with Roger Wake as sound engineer, featuring an obscure cover with bloody and scary motifs, ranks among the most forgotten classics of the underground scene and is now extremely rare and highly sought-after. The short-lived British band was formed in 1968 in Stevenage, Hertfordshire, by excellent musicians, all of whom later went on to work as sought-after session musicians: Alan Greed (lead vocals, organ, piano), who later formed Running Man with Ray Russell, Mark Griffiths (guitar, trumpet, vocals), Dave Jenkins (guitar, harmonica, vocals), Steve Miller (bass) and Roger Swallow (drums).

The five-piece group played a powerful, organ-heavy proto-progressive rock with psychedelic elements and experimental sounds – a style that put them ahead of their time. This may have been the reason why the record received little attention, despite its controversial and provocative cover design, full of blood and horror, created by Phil Duffy. The band split up that very same year. As the album was never re-released on vinyl, original British pressings are simply impossible to find nowadays.