1989 in heavy metal music

This is a timeline documenting the events of heavy metal in the year 1989.

Newly formed bands

* 122 Stab Wounds
* 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
* Dark Tranquillity
* Dissection
* diSEMBOWELMENT
* Dungeon
* Edge Of Sanity
* Falkenbach
* The Gathering
* Gorefest
* Gorguts
* Immortal
* Incantation
* Iniquity
* Insanity Reigns Supreme
* Isengard
* Living Sacrifice
* Marilyn Manson
* Mortician
* Necromantia
* Necrophobic
* Aggressor
* Novembers Doom
* Ophthalamia
* Polluted Inheritance
* Pitch Shifter
* Saviour Machine
* Sentenced
* 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"
* Dream Theater - "When Dream and Day Unite"
* D.R.I. - "Thrash Zone"
* Entombed - "But Life Goes On" (demo)
* 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"
* Forced Entry - "Uncertain Future"
* Funebre - "Cranial Torment" (demo)
* Grave - "Anatomia Corporis Humani" (demo)
* Great White - "...Twice Shy"
* 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"
* 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 Disquise"
* 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"
* 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"
* Primus - "Suck on This" (live)
* Rage - "Secrets in a Weird World"
* Rotting Christ - "The Other Side of Life" (split EP with Sound Pollution)
* Rigor Mortis - "Freaks"
* Running Wild - "Death or Glory"
* Rush - "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"
* Vengeance Rising - "Human Sacrifice"
* 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"
* Yngwie J. Malmsteen - ""

Disbandments

* Cacophony
* Dokken

Events

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