The debut album from a London band named after a character from Charles Dickens, who were among the best-known representatives of the British hard rock scene in the 1970s alongside Deep Purple, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. Founded in 1969, Mick Box (g) and David Byron (voc) together with Ken Hensley (keyb) from the band The Gods formed the core of Uriah Heep in the early years. They recorded their first LP with Paul Newton (b, voc), Ollie Olsson and Alex Napier (dr), produced by Gerry Bron. The album was released in the UK in June 1970 on the progressive label Vertigo with a bizarre cover design by Robin Nicol of Design Machine showing the face of singer David Byron framed by cobwebs and contorted into a scream. But the music wasn't that dark.

Ranging from hard rock to progressive symphonic overtones and melodic, expressive vocals, their mix covers a wide variety of styles. With this album, the British quintet not only laid the foundation for their later worldwide success, but their hard rock with progressive elements was also important for the emergence of heavy metal. Although initially not particularly successful in England, their first LP is now considered an absolute classic and is extremely sought after as a UK original on the popular Vertigo Swirl label.