1976 in heavy metal music

This is a timeline documenting the events of heavy metal in the year 1976.

Newly formed bands

* Accept
* Diamond Head
* Iron Maiden (by Steve Harris) [cite web|url=http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:3ifyxqe5ldae~T1|publisher=Allmusic|title=Iron Maiden Bio|accessdate=2008-10-10]
* Running Wild
* Sammy Hagar
* Savage
* Saxon
* Raven
* Ratt

Albums

* AC/DC - "High Voltage" (International album)
* AC/DC - "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap"
* AC/DC - "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" (UK)
* Aerosmith - "Rocks"
* Alice Cooper - "Alice Cooper Goes to Hell"
* Black Sabbath - "Technical Ecstasy"
* Black Sabbath - "We Sold Our Soul for Rock 'n' Roll"
* Blue Öyster Cult - "Agents of Fortune"
* Judas Priest - "Sad Wings of Destiny"
* KISS - "Destroyer"
* KISS - "Rock and Roll Over"
* Led Zeppelin - "Presence"
* Led Zeppelin - "The Song Remains the Same"
* Scorpions - "Virgin Killer"
* Ted Nugent - "Free-For-All"
* Queen - "A Day at the Races"
* Rush - "2112"
* Rainbow - "Rising"
* Thin Lizzy - "Jailbreak"
* Thin Lizzy - "Johnny the Fox"
* UFO - "No Heavy Petting"
* Uriah Heep - "High and Mighty"

Disbandments

* Deep Purple
* Sammy Hagar leaves Montrose to go solo. [cite web|url=http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&sql=11:gifwxqe5ld0e~T1|publisher=Allmusic|title=Sammy Hagar Bio|accessdate=2008-10-10]

Events

* Guitarist "Fast" Eddie Clarke joins Motörhead and Larry Wallis leaves after a month.
* AC/DC's second international album "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap" is released in the United Kingdom on November this year and would later be released in the United States in April 1981.
* Deep Purple's guitarist Tommy Bolin dies from overdose on December 4th during the "Private Eyes" tour, just after his last show on stage.