1989 in heavy metal music

Newly formed bands

Aggressor

Abhorrence

Abruptum

Bal-Sagoth

Beherit

Benediction

Brujeria

Mägo de Oz

Bruce Dickinson's solo career starts (though he remains with Iron Maiden until 1993).

Cathedral

Comecon

Consolation

Crowbar

Damn Yankees

Dark Tranquillity

Dissection

diSEMBOWELMENT

Doro

Dungeon

Edge Of Sanity

Falkenbach

Fear Factory

The Gathering

Gorefest

Gorguts

Immortal

Incantation

Iniquity

Isengard

Living Sacrifice

Marilyn Manson

Mortician

Necromantia

Necrophobic

Aggressor

Novembers Doom

Oomph!

Ophthalamia

Polluted Inheritance

Pitch Shifter

Reverend

Saviour Machine

Sentenced

Sexart

Sigh

Slaughter

Tourniquet

Thorns

Thought Industry

Unanimated

Unleashed

Vital Remains

Vomitory

Von

While Heaven Wept

Wizard

Albums

24-7 Spyz - Harder Than You

Acid Reign - The Fear

Accept - Eat the Heat

Addictive - Pity of Man

Aerosmith - Pump

Alice Cooper - Prince Of Darkness, Trash

Annihilator - Alice in Hell

Atheist - Piece of Time

Atrocity - Blue Blood (Single)

Autopsy - Severed Survival

Bang Tango - Psycho Cafe

Blue Murder - Blue Murder

Believer - Extraction from Mortality

Black Sabbath - Headless Cross

Blind Guardian - Follow the Blind

Bolt Thrower - Realm Of Chaos - Slaves To Darkness

Candlemass - Tales of Creation

Cannibal Corpse - Cannibal Corpse (5-song demo cassette)

Carcass - Symphonies of Sickness

Coroner - No More Color

The Cult - Sonic Temple

Cynic - Reflections of a Dying World (demo)

Dark Angel - Leave Scars

Deliverance - Deliverance

Destruction - Live Without Sense

Doro - Force Majeure

Dream Theater - When Dream and Day Unite

D.R.I. - Thrash Zone

Entombed - But Life Goes On (demo)

Enuff Z'Nuff. - Enuff Z'Nuff

Equinox - Auf Wiedersehen

Evildead - Annihilation of Civilization

Excel - The Joke's on You

Exodus - Fabulous Disaster

Extreme - Extreme

Faith No More - The Real Thing

Fates Warning - Perfect Symmetry

Forbidden - Raw Evil: Live At The Dynamo

Funebre - Cranial Torment (demo)

Grave - Anatomia Corporis Humani (demo)

Great White - ...Twice Shy

Grinder - Dead End

Gorky Park – Gorky Park

Helix - Over 60 minutes with...

Helstar - Nosferatu

Hermética - Hermética

Holy Moses - The New Machine of Lichtenstein

Joe Satriani - Flying in a Blue Dream

Keel - Larger Than Live

King Diamond - Conspiracy

Kingdom Come - In Your Face

King's X - Gretchen Goes to Nebraska

KISS - Hot in the Shade

Kreator - Extreme Aggression

Korzus - Pay For Your Lies

Lääz Rockit - Annihilation Principle

Leatherwolf - Street Ready

Living Death - Worlds Neuroses

Lizzy Borden - "Master of Disguise"

Lobotomia - Nada É Como Parece

Macabre - Gloom

Massacra - Nearer from Death (demo)

Mekong Delta - The Principle of Doubt

Metal Church - Blessing in Disguise

Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness

Morgoth - Resurrection Absurd

Mortal Sin - Face of Despair

Mortem - Slow Death

Mr. Big - Mr. Big

Mötley Crüe - Dr. Feelgood

Napalm - Cruel Tranquility

Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine

Nitro - "O.F.R."

Nuclear Assault - Handle with Care

Obituary - Slowly We Rot

Onslaught - In Search of Sanity

Overkill - The Years of Decay

Pestilence - Consuming Impulse

Phantom Blue - Phantom Blue

Pretty Boy Floyd - Leather Boyz With Electric Toyz

Primus - Suck on This (live)

Rage - Secrets in a Weird World

Repulsion - Horrified (originally recorded in 1986, but not officially released until 1989)

Reverend - Reverend

Rotting Christ - The Other Side of Life (split EP with Sound Pollution)

Rigor Mortis - Freaks

Rollins Band - Hard Volume

Running Wild - Death or Glory

Rush - A Show of Hands; Presto

Sabbat - Dreamweaver (Reflections of Our Yesterdays)

Sacred Reich - Alive at the Dynamo

Saint Vitus - V

Sarcófago - Rotting

Savatage - Gutter Ballet

Sepultura - Beneath the Remains

Skid Row - Skid Row

Sodom - Agent Orange

Soundgarden - Louder Than Love

Stone - No Anaesthesia!

Stratovarius - Fright Night

Suicidal Tendencies - Controlled by Hatred/Feel Like Shit...Déjà Vu

Tankard - Hair of the Dog (compilation)

Terrorizer - World Downfall

Tesla - The Great Radio Controversy

Testament - Practice What You Preach

Thanatos - Omnicoitor (demo)

Toxik - Think This

Unseen Terror - The Peel Sessions

Vader - "Necrolust" (demo)

Vengeance Rising - Human Sacrifice

Venom (band) - Prime Evil

Viking - Man Of Straw

Viper - Theatre of Fate

Voivod - Nothingface

W.A.S.P. - The Headless Children

Watchtower - Control and Resistance

Wehrmacht - Biermacht

White Lion - Big Game

Whitesnake - Slip Of The Tongue

White Zombie - Make Them Die Slowly

Winter - Hour of Doom (demo)

Wrathchild America - Climbin' the Walls

Xentrix - Shattered Existence

X Japan - Blue Blood

XYZ (US band) - XYZ (XYZ album)

Yngwie J. Malmsteen - Trial By Fire: Live in Leningrad

Disbandments

Cacophony

Destruction (Schmier leaves the band)

Dokken

Events

Primus records their live album Suck on This at Berkeley Square in Berkeley, California on February 25 and March 5.

Mötley Crüe's album Dr. Feelgood reaches number one on the Billboard Top 100.

Bon Jovi, Cinderella, Ozzy Osbourne, Scorpions, Mötley Crüe, and Skid Row take part in the Moscow Music Peace Festival on August 12 & August 13, 1989.

For the first time in its history, a Grammy is given for Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance. The award is given to Jethro Tull for Crest of a Knave.

Jason Becker is diagnosed with ALS.

Faith No More, Soundgarden and Voivod embark on a U.S. tour together.

Future Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo joins Suicidal Tendencies (and remains with them until their split in 1995). Following his participation, the band would abandon their hardcore punk style and become more of a thrash metal/funk metal band.

Steve Vai leaves David Lee Roth's solo band and joins Whitesnake.

Rick Rozz leaves Death and is replaced by then-future Obituary and Testament guitarist James Murphy. The new Death line-up (Chuck Schuldiner/James Murphy/Terry Butler/Bill Andrews) eventually records a new album that would be released next year.