By 1971, the band had moved away from its darker occult imagery in an

By 1971, the band had moved away from its darker occult imagery in an effort to gain a wider audience, which was unsuccessful. Having replaced Bond and Box with Geoff Griffith and Romeo Challenger , Black Widow released the self-titled Black Widow album in 1971 and Black Widow III in 1972 (by which time Gannon had left, replaced by John Culley) to general lack of interest, before being dropped by CBS Records . The band recorded an album, Black Widow IV , later in 1972 without a recording contract . It was not released then due to the band breaking up, shortly after replacing lead vocalist Kip Trevor, with another singer known as Rick “E” (born Frank Karuba; formerly of ‘Plum Nelly’).