1996 in heavy metal music

Newly formed bands

• Alabama Thunderpussy
• Alien Ant Farm
• Control Denied
• The Crest
• Decapitated
• Flaw
• God Forbid
• Gojira
• The Haunted
• Hibria
• Linkin Park
• Nightwish
• Samsas Traum
• uneXpect
• Within Temptation

  Albums

• 24-7 Spyz - 6
• 24-7 Spyz - Heavy Metal Soul by the Pound
• Accept - Predator
• Acid Bath - Paegan Terrorism Tactics
• Alice in Chains - Unplugged
• Altar - Ego Art
• Amon Amarth - Sorrow Throughout the Nine Worlds
• Amorphis - Elegy
• Anathema – Eternity
• Angelcorpse - Hammer of Gods
• Angra - Holy Land
• Antidote - Mind Alive
• Apocalyptica - Plays Metallica by Four Cellos
• Arch Enemy - Black Earth
• Arcturus - Aspera Hiems Symfonia
• Asphyx - God Cries
• Asphyx - Embrace the Death
• Ayreon - Actual Fantasy
• Bathory - Blood on Ice
• Behemoth - Grom
• Biohazard - Mata Leão
• Borknagar - Borknagar
• Bruce Dickinson - Skunkworks
• Brutality - In Mourning
• Brutal Truth - Kill Trend Suicide
• Cannibal Corpse - Vile
• Cathedral - Supernatural Birth Machine
• Converge - Petitioning the Empty Sky
• Corrosion of Conformity - Wiseblood
• Cradle of Filth - V Empire or Dark Faerytales in Phallustein
• Cradle of Filth - Dusk... and Her Embrace
• Crowbar - Broken Glass
• Cryptopsy - None So Vile
• Danzig – Danzig 5: Blackacidevil
• Dark Funeral - The Secrets of the Black Arts
• Dawn - Sorgh på Svarte Vingar Fløgh
• Deep Purple - Purpendicular
• Def Leppard - Slang
• Desultory - Swallow the Snake
• Dimmu Borgir - Stormblåst
• Dio - Angry Machines
• Downset. - Do We Speak a Dead Language?
• Dying Fetus - Purification Through Violence
• Earth Crisis - Gomorrah's Season Ends
• Edge of Sanity - Crimson
• Eyehategod - Dopesick
• Forbidden - Green
• Freak Kitchen - Spanking Hour
• Fu Manchu - In Search Of...
• Godflesh - Songs of Love and Hate
• Gorefest - Soul Survivor
• Gorgoroth - Antichrist
• Grave - Hating Life
• Helloween - The Time of the Oath
• Hypocrisy - Abducted
• Hypocrisy - Maximum Abduction
• Immolation - Here in After
• In Flames - The Jester Race
• Iced Earth - The Dark Saga
• Integrity – Humanity is the Devil
• King Diamond - The Graveyard
• Kataklysm - Temple of Knowledge
• Katatonia - Brave Murder Day
• Korn - Life Is Peachy
• Korpse - Revirgin
• Kvist - For Kunsten Maa Vi Evig Vike
• Tony MacAlpine - Violent Machine
• Madball - Demonstrating My Style
• Manowar - Louder Than Hell
• Marduk - Heaven Shall Burn... When We Are Gathered
• Marilyn Manson - Antichrist Superstar
• Metallica - Load
• Ministry - Filth Pig
• Monstrosity - Millennium
• Moonspell - Irreligious
• Morgana Lefay - Maleficium
• Morgoth - Feel Sorry for the Fanatic
• Mortician - Hacked up for Barbecue
• Mortification - EnVision EvAngelene
• Motörhead - Overnight Sensation
• My Dying Bride - Like Gods of the Sun
• Napalm Death - Diatribes
• Necrophobic – Spawned by Evil
• Nevermore - The Politics of Ecstasy
• Neurosis - Through Silver in Blood
• Occult – The Enemy Within
• Old Man's Child - Born of the Flickering
• Orange 9mm - Tragic
• Orphanage - By Time Alone
• Oomph! - Wunschkind
• Opeth - Morningrise
• Overkill – The Killing Kind
• Pantera - The Great Southern Trendkill
• Pan.Thy.Monium - Khaooohs and Kon-Fus-Ion
• Pitchshifter - Infotainment?
• P.O.D. - Brown
• Poison -
• Pro-Pain – Contents Under Pressure
• Prong - Rude Awakening
• Quo Vadis - Forever...
• Rage - Lingua Mortis
• Rage - End of All Days
• Rage Against the Machine - Evil Empire
• Rotting Christ - Triarchy of the Lost Lovers
• Rush - Test for Echo
• Sacred Reich - Heal
• Samael - Passage
• Satyricon - Nemesis Divina
• Scorpions – Pure Instinct
• Sepultura - Roots
• Sentenced - Down
• Soundgarden - Down on the Upside
• Slayer - Undisputed Attitude
• Slipknot - Mate. Feed. Kill. Repeat.
• Staind - Tormented
• Stratovarius - Episode
• Stuck Mojo - Pigwalk
• Summoning - Dol Guldur
• Theatre of Tragedy - Velvet Darkness They Fear
• The 3rd and the Mortal - Painting on Glass
• Therion - Theli
• Thorr's Hammer - Dommedagsnatt
• Tool - Ænima
• Type O Negative - October Rust
• Steve Vai - Fire Garden
• Vader - Future of the Past
• Van Halen - Best Of – Volume I
• Vision of Disorder - Vision of Disorder
• Warrant - Belly to Belly
• Xentrix - Scourge

  Disbandments

• Damn Yankees
• Down
• Extreme
• Prong
• Sexart
• Skid Row
• Trouble

  Events

• Alice in Chains plays their last ever concert with Layne Staley on July 23, 1996. They later go on hiatus until April 20, 2002 in which Staley is found dead in his apartment after overdosing on a speedball.
• Body Count drummer Beatmaster V dies of leukemia.
• The first Ozzfest tour sets off, with headliners Ozzy Osbourne, Slayer and Danzig.
• The original line-up of KISS come back together.
• Bassist Greg Christian of Testament is out of the band, leaving guitarist Eric Peterson as the sole ever-present in the line-up.
• Slash leaves Guns N' Roses, citing differences with Axl Rose
• Sammy Hagar departs Van Halen after a feud with Eddie Van Halen. Van Halen briefly reunites with David Lee Roth at a highly publicized event at the MTV Video Music Awards, but fires him shortly thereafter.
• Tim 'Ripper' Owens fills the void left by Rob Halford in 1993 as lead singer of Judas Priest.