1994 in heavy metal music

Newly formed bands

• 20 Dead Flower Children
• Abscess
• Amen
• Deströyer 666
• Disturbed
• Dødheimsgard
• Draconian
• Edguy
• Evoken
• Graveworm
• HammerFall
• Hatebreed
• Heavenly
• Lacuna Coil
• Lamb of God
• Limbonic Art
• Lost Horizon
• Melechesh
• Moonspell
• Mushroomhead
• Naer Mataron
• Necrophagist
• Neuraxis
• Nile
• Nothingface
• Primordial
• Quo Vadis
• Rammstein
• Rudra
• Scarve
• Six Feet Under
• Skylark
• Slash's Snakepit
• Static-X
• Strapping Young Lad
• Sevendust
• Stone Sour
• Symphony X
• System of a Down
• Theatre of Tragedy
• Ulver
• Vintersorg
• Virgin Black
• Wolfgang

  Albums

• Accept – Death Row
• Acid Bath – When the Kite String Pops
• Acid King – Acid King
• Alice Cooper – The Last Temptation
• 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
• Asphyx - Asphyx
• At the Gates - Terminal Spirit Disease
• Bathory – Requiem
• Behemoth – And the Forests Dream Eternally
• Benediction - The Grotesque / Ashen Epitaph
• Bestial Warlust - Vengeance War Till Death
• Biohazard – State of the World Address
• Black Sabbath – Cross Purposes
• Body Count – Born Dead
• Bolt Thrower – ...For Victory
• 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
• Cathedral – In Memorium
• Cathedral – Statik Majik
• Cemetary – Black Vanity
• 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
• Danzig – Danzig 4
• Dark Funeral – Dark Funeral
• Darkthrone – Transilvanian Hunger
• Deliverance – River Disturbance
• Destruction – Destruction
• Desultory - Bitterness
• Dimmu Borgir – For all tid
• Dio – Strange Highways
• 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
• Godflesh – Selfless
• Gorefest – Erase
• Gorgoroth – Pentagram
• Gotthard – Dial Hard
• Grave - Soulless
• Gwar – This Toilet Earth
• 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
• Lake of Tears – Greater Art
• Luciferion - Demonication
• Tony MacAlpine – Premonition
• Machine Head – Burn My Eyes
• Madball – Set It Off
• Magnum – Rock Art
• Yngwie Malmsteen – The Seventh Sign
• 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
• Moonspell – Under the Moonspell
• Mortification - Blood World
• Mötley Crüe – Mötley Crüe
• My Dying Bride - I Am the Bloody Earth
• Nailbomb – Point Blank
• Napalm Death – Fear, Emptiness, Despair
• Nine Inch Nails – The Downward Spiral
• 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
• 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
• Ram Jam – Nouvel Album
• Rollins Band – Weight
• Ron Wasserman –
• Rotting Christ – Non Serviam
• Running Wild – Black Hand Inn
• Samael – Ceremony of Opposites
• Satyricon – Dark Medieval Times
• Satyricon – The Shadowthrone
• Savatage – Handful of Rain
• Senser – Stacked Up
• Sentenced - The Trooper
• 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
• The 3rd and the Mortal – Tears Laid in Earth
• Tiamat – Wildhoney
• Urban Dance Squad – Persona Non Grata
• Vader – Sothis
• Vanden Plas – Colour Temple
• Various Artists – Nativity in Black
• Vicious Rumors – Word of Mouth
• Widowmaker – Stand by for Pain

  Disbandments

• Atheist
• Follow for Now
• Lost Horizon
• Metal Church
• Nirvana

  Events

• Korn release their critically acclaimed self-titled debut album, which is generally considered the first ever "nu metal" album.
• 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 Neue Deutsche Härte genre with their album Sperm.
• Vocalist Ralf Scheepers leaves Gamma Ray. He would later go on to form Primal Fear.