1994 in heavy metal music explained

This is a timeline documenting the events of heavy metal music in the year 1994.

Newly formed bands

Albums

Accept – Death Row
Acid Bath – When the Kite String Pops
Acid King – Acid King (EP)
Alice Cooper – The Last Temptation
Alice in Chains – Jar of Flies
Aggressor – Of Long Duration Anguish
The Almighty – Crank
Altar - Youth Against Christ
Amorphis – Tales from the Thousand Lakes
Ancient – Svartalvheim
Annihilator – King of the Kill
Arcturus – Constellation (EP)
Asphyx - Asphyx
At the Gates - Terminal Spirit Disease
Bang Tango – Love After Death
Bathory – Requiem
Behemoth – And the Forests Dream Eternally (EP)
Benediction - The Grotesque / Ashen Epitaph (EP)
Bestial Warlust - Vengeance War Till Death
Biohazard – State of the World Address
Black Sabbath – Cross Purposes
The Black Crowes – Amorica
Body Count – Born Dead
Bolt Thrower – ...For Victory
Bon Jovi – Cross Road (comp.)
Bruce Dickinson – Balls to Picasso
Brutality - When the Sky Turns Black
Brutal Truth - Need to Control
Burzum – Hvis lyset tar oss
Cannibal Corpse – The Bleeding
Cathedral – Cosmic Requiem (EP)
Cathedral – In Memorium (EP)
Cathedral – Statik Majik (EP)
Cemetary – Black Vanity
Cinderella – Still Climbing
Converge – Halo in a Haystack
Corrosion of Conformity – Deliverance
Cradle of Filth – The Principle of Evil Made Flesh
Cryptopsy – Blasphemy Made Flesh
The Cult – The Cult
Dangerous Toys – Pissed
Danzig – Danzig 4
Dark Funeral – Dark Funeral (EP)
Darkthrone – Transilvanian Hunger
Deliverance – River Disturbance
Destruction – Destruction (EP)
Desultory - Bitterness
Dio – Strange Highways (US release)
DGeneration – DGeneration
Downset. – downset.
Dream Theater – Awake
Edge of Sanity – Purgatory Afterglow
Electric Wizard – Electric Wizard
Emperor – In the Nightside Eclipse
Enslaved – Frost
Enslaved – Vikingligr Veldi
Fates Warning – Inside Out
Freak Kitchen – Appetizer
Forbidden – Distortion
Fu Manchu – No One Rides for Free
Gehenna – First Spell (EP)
Gilby Clarke – Pawnshop Guitars
Godflesh – Selfless
Gorefest – Erase
Gorgoroth – Pentagram
Gotthard – Dial Hard
Grave - Soulless
Gwar – This Toilet Earth
H-Blockx - Time to Move
Helloween – Master of the Rings
Helmet – Betty
Hypocrisy – The Fourth Dimension
Impaled Nazarene – Suomi Finland Perkele
In Flames – Lunar Strain
Incantation – Mortal Throne of Nazarene
Infectious Grooves – Groove Family Cyco
Killing Joke – Pandemonium
King's X – Dogman
Korn – Korn
Korpse - Pull the Flood
Kyuss – Welcome to Sky Valley
L.A. Guns – Vicious Circle
Lake of Tears – Greater Art
Love/Hate – Lets Rumble
Luciferion - Demonication (The Manifest)
Tony MacAlpine – Premonition
Machine Head – Burn My Eyes
Madball – Set It Off
Magnum – Rock Art
Yngwie Malmsteen – The Seventh Sign
Manic Eden – Manic Eden
Marduk – Opus Nocturne
Marilyn Manson – Portrait of an American Family
Mayhem – De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas
Megadeth – Youthanasia
Melvins – Stoner Witch
Memento Mori – Life, Death, and Other Morbid Tales
Mercyful Fate – Time
Meshuggah – None (EP)
Moonspell – Under the Moonspell (EP)
Mortification - Blood World
Mötley Crüe – Mötley Crüe
My Dying Bride - I Am the Bloody Earth (EP)
Nailbomb – Point Blank
Napalm Death – Fear, Emptiness, Despair
The New York Dolls – Rock'n Roll
Nine Inch Nails – The Downward Spiral
Nirvana – MTV Unplugged in New York
No One Is Innocent – No One Is Innocent
Occult – Prepare to Meet Thy Doom
Obituary – World Demise
The Obsessed – The Church Within
Oomph! – Sperm
Overkill – W.F.O.
Pantera – Far Beyond Driven
Pearl Jam – Vitalogy
Pentagram - Be Forewarned
Pitchshifter – The Remix War (remix)
Pride & Glory – Pride & Glory
Pro-Pain – The Truth Hurts
Prong – Cleansing
Pungent Stench - Club Mondo Bizarre – For Members Only
P.O.D. – Snuff the Punk
Queensrÿche – Promised Land
Rage – 10 Years in Rage (compilation)
Ram Jam – Nouvel Album (also released under the name Thank You Mam in 1995)
Rollins Band – Weight
Ron Wasserman – (soundtrack)
Rotting Christ – Non Serviam
Running Wild – Black Hand Inn
Samael – Ceremony of Opposites
Satyricon – The Shadowthrone
Savatage – Handful of Rain
Senser – Stacked Up
Sentenced - The Trooper (EP)
Septicflesh - Mystic Places of Dawn
Skyclad – Prince of the Poverty Line
Slayer – Divine Intervention
Sodom – Get What You Deserve
Solitude Aeturnus – Through the Darkest Hour
Solstice – Lamentations
Soundgarden – Superunknown
Stabbing Westward – Ungod
Stone Temple Pilots – Purple
Stratovarius – Dreamspace
Suicidal Tendencies – Suicidal for Life
Symphony X – Symphony X
Tankard – Two-Faced
Testament – Low
Therapy? – Troublegum
Threshold – Psychedelicatessen
The 3rd and the Mortal – Sorrow (EP)
The 3rd and the Mortal – Tears Laid in Earth
Tiamat – Wildhoney
Tuff – Fist First
Urban Dance Squad – Persona Non Grata
Vader – Sothis (EP)
Vanden Plas – Colour Temple
Various Artists – Nativity in Black (Black Sabbath tribute album)
Vicious Rumors – Word of Mouth
Whitesnake – Greatest Hits
Widowmaker – Stand By for Pain

Disbandments

Atheist (reformed in 2006)
- Follow for Now Lost Horizon (then known as Highlander) (reformed in 1999)
Metal Church (reformed in 1998)
Nirvana

Events

Korn release their critically acclaimed self-titled debut album, which is generally considered the first ever "nu metal" album.^[1]
Divine Intervention by Slayer peaks at Number 8 on the U.S. Billboard 200 chart, with 93,000 copies sold in its first week, and later that year was certified gold in Canada and United States.
Nicholas Barker becomes the drummer for Cradle of Filth.
Longtime Extreme drummer Paul Geary leaves the band is replaced by Michael Mangini.
Testament release their sixth album Low. It is their first album recorded without original guitarist Alex Skolnick and drummer Louie Clemente, who both left the band a year before, and also their last with longtime bassist Greg Christian, who left two years later.
Metallica, Danzig and Suicidal Tendencies embark on a U.S. tour together.
Oomph! establish the rudiments of the Neue Deutsche Härte genre with their album Sperm.
Vocalist Ralf Scheepers leaves Gamma Ray. He would later go on to form Primal Fear.

Notes and References

Web site: Wiederhorn . Jon . 29 Years Ago: Korn Pioneer A New Sound With Their Self-Titled Album . Loudwire . 10 February 2024 . 11 October 2023.