2003 in heavy metal music

This is a timeline documenting the events of heavy metal in the year 2003.

Newly formed bands

• Bullet for My Valentine
• Communic
• DevilDriver
• Epica
• Korpiklaani
• Sturmgeist

Re-formed bands

• Fear Factory
• Judas Priest
• Primus
• Stryper

Albums

• Alice Cooper - Eyes Of Alice Cooper
• Arch Enemy - Anthems of Rebellion
• Avenged Sevenfold - Waking the Fallen
• Black Label Society - The Blessed Hellride
• The Black Dahlia Murder - Unhallowed
• Cannibal Corpse - 15 Year Killing Spree
• Children of Bodom - Hate Crew Deathroll
• Chimaira - The Impossibilty of Reason
• Cradle of Filth - Damnation and a Day
• The Darkness - Permission to Land
• Deep Purple - Bananas
• Deftones - Deftones
• Devildriver- DevilDriver (album)
• Dimmu Borgir - Death Cult Armageddon
• Divinity Destroyed - Divinity Destroyed
• Divinity Destroyed - Eden in Ashes
• DragonForce - Valley of the Damned
• Dream Theater - Train of Thought
• Finntroll - Visor om Slutet
• Helloween - Rabbit Don't Come Easy
• Iron Maiden - Dance of Death
• Judas Priest - Livin' after Midnight
• KISS - Symphony: Alive IV
• Korn - Take a Look in The Mirror
• Kreator - Live Kreation
• Macabre - Murder Metal
• Metallica - St. Anger
• Moonspell - The Antidote
• Motörhead - Live At Brixton Academy The Complete Concert (live)
• Opeth - Damnation
• Shadows Fall - The War Within
• Solefald - In Harmonia Universali
• Sonata Arctica - Winterheart's Guild
• Static-X - Shadow Zone
• Strapping Young Lad - Strapping Young Lad
• Stratovarius - Elements, pt.1, Elements, pt.2
• Stryper - Seven
• Theocracy - Theocracy
• Tourniquet - Where Moth and Rust Destroy
• Trivium - Ember to Inferno
• Týr - Eric the Red
• uneXpect - We, Invaders

Disbandments

• Coal Chamber
• Five pointe o
• Limbonic Art
• Pantera
• Immortal

Events

• Metallica hires new bassist Robert Trujillo (from Suicidal Tendencies and Ozzy Osbourne).
• MTV2 resurrected the old Heavy Metal, Rock television program Headbangers' Ball.
• Iced Earth vocalist Matt Barlow leaves Iced Earth after the events of September 11th.
• Christian metal band Stryper reforms with all original members.