2004 in heavy metal music

This is a timeline documenting the events of heavy metal in the year 2004.

Newly formed bands

• Age Of Silence
• Demonoid
• Scar Symmetry
• Wintersun

Reformed Bands

• Megadeth

Albums

• 3 Inches of Blood - Advance and Vanquish
• Aerosmith - Honkin' On Bobo
• Age Of Silence - Acceleration
• Angra - Temple of Shadows
• Ayreon - The Human Equation
• Behemoth - Demigod
• Black Label Society - Hangover Music Vol. VI
• Cannibal Corpse - The Wretched Spawn
• Chevelle - This Type of Thinking (Could Do Us In)
• Cradle of Filth - Nymphetamine
• Damageplan - New Found Power
• Decapitated - The Negation
• The Dillinger Escape Plan - Miss Machine
• Dio - Master of the Moon
• Dokken - Hell to Pay
• DragonForce - Sonic Firestorm
• Drowning Pool - Desensitized
• Edguy - Hellfire Club
• Fear Factory - Archetype
• Finntroll - Nattfödd
• Iced Earth - The Glorious Burden
• In Flames - Soundtrack to Your Escape
• Killswitch Engage - The End of Heartache
• Korn - Greatest Hits Vol.1
• Lordi - The Monsterican Dream
• Machine Head - Through the Ashes of Empires
• Mastodon - Leviathan
• Megadeth - The System Has Failed
• Metal Church - The Weight of the World
• Monster Magnet - Monolithic Baby
• Motörhead - Inferno
• Nightwish - Once
• Pig Destroyer - Painter Of Dead Girls (Tracks from Gnob and Benumb split), Terrifyer
• Probot - Probot
• Rammstein - Reise, Reise
• Rhapsody of Fire - Symphony of Enchanted Lands II: The Dark Secret
• Rush - Feedback
• Slipknot - Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)
• Sonata Arctica - Reckoning Night
• Static-X - Beneath, Between, Beyond
• Saxon - Lionheart
• Stryper - 7 Weeks: Live in America, 2003
• Velvet Revolver - Contraband
• Vintersorg - The Focusing Blur
• Winds - The Imaginary Direction of Time
• Wintersun - Wintersun

Disbandments

Brian Welch leaves Korn after converting to Christianity.

Events

• Damageplan and former Pantera lead guitarist Dimebag Darrell is murdered on December 8 by Nathan Gale while performing a concert in Ohio.
• Bassist Tim Gaines leaves Stryper after 10 complete years. He is replaced by Tracy Ferrie.
• Jason Jones, originally a tattoo artist from Los Angeles, California, was publically announced as Drowning Pool's new lead singer and joined them on the album Desensitized.