2004 in heavy metal music

This is a timeline documenting the events of heavy metal in the year 2004.

Newly formed bands

* Age Of Silence
* The Agonist (as The Tempest)
* Celestiial
* Chrome Division
* Demonoid
* Extreme (for a few shows)
* Job for a Cowboy
* Sturm und Drang
* Savage Circus
* Scar Symmetry
* Threat Signal
* Wintersun
* Catherine

Reformed Bands

* Megadeth
* Mötley Crüe

Albums

* 3 Inches of Blood - "Advance and Vanquish"
* Aerosmith - "Honkin' On Bobo"
* After Forever - "Invisible Circles"
* Age Of Silence - "Acceleration"
* Angra - " Temple of Shadows"
* Ayreon - "The Human Equation"
* Behemoth - "Demigod"
* Beseech - "Drama"
* Black Label Society - Hangover Music Vol. VI"
* Blind Stare - Symphony of Delusions"
* Bon Jovi - "100,000,000 Bon Jovi Fans Can't Be Wrong"
* Cannibal Corpse - "The Wretched Spawn"
* Chevelle - "This Type of Thinking (Could Do Us In)"
* Cradle of Filth - "Nymphetamine"
* Damageplan - "New Found Power"
* Decapitated - "The Negation"
* Def Leppard - "Best of Def Leppard"
* Demon Hunter - "Summer of Darkness"
* The Dillinger Escape Plan - "Miss Machine"
* Dio - "Master of the Moon"
* Dokken - "Hell To Pay"
* DragonForce - "Sonic Firestorm"
* Drowning Pool - "Desensitized"
* Edguy - "Hellfire Club"
* Europe - "Start from the Dark"
* Exodus - "Tempo of the Damned"
* Fear Factory - "Archetype"
* Finntroll - "Nattfödd"
* God Forbid - "Gone Forever"
* Iced Earth - "The Glorious Burden"
* In Flames - "Soundtrack to Your Escape"
* Killswitch Engage - "The End of Heartache"
* Kittie - "Until the End"
* Lamb of God - "Ashes of the Wake"
* Lordi - "The Monsterican Dream"
* Machine Head - "Through the Ashes of Empires"
* Marilyn Manson - ""
* Mastodon - "Leviathan
* Mayhem - Chimera
* Megadeth - "The System Has Failed"
* Mercenary - "11 Dreams"
* Metal Church - "The Weight of the World"
* Monster Magnet - "Monolithic Baby!"
* Motörhead - "Inferno"
* Necrophagist - "Epitaph"
* Nightwish - "Once"
* No Big Silence - "Kuidas kuningas kuu peale kippus"
* Otep - "House of Secrets"
* Pig Destroyer - "Painter of Dead Girls"
* Pig Destroyer - "Terrifyer"
* Probot - "Probot"
* Rammstein - "Reise, Reise"
* Raunchy - "Confusion Bay"
* Rhapsody of Fire - ""
* Rush - "Feedback"
* Saxon - "Lionheart"
* Scarve - "Irradiant"
* Shadows Fall - "The War Within"
* Slipknot - ""
* Sonata Arctica - "Reckoning Night"
* Static-X - "Beneath, Between, Beyond"
* Stryper - ""
* Sybreed - "Slave Design"
* The Crest - "Vain City Chronicles"
* U.D.O. - "Thunderball"
* Van Halen - "The Best of Both Worlds"
* Velvet Revolver - "Contraband"
* Vintersorg - "The Focusing Blur"
* WarCry - "Alea Jacta Est"
* Winds - "The Imaginary Direction of Time"
* Wintersun - "Wintersun"

Disbandments

Brian Welch leaves Korn after converting to Christianity.

Events

* Damageplan and former Pantera lead guitarist Dimebag Darrell is murdered on December 8 by Nathan Gale while performing a concert in Ohio.
* Bassist Tim Gaines leaves Stryper after 10 complete years. He is replaced by Tracy Ferrie.
* Body Count rhythm guitarist D-Roc dies from lymphoma at the age of 45.
* Jason Jones, originally a tattoo artist from Los Angeles, California, was publicly announced as Drowning Pool's new lead singer and joined them on the album Desensitized.
* Supergroup Velvet Revolver releases their debut album "Contraband" which debuts at #1 on the Billboard 200 and goes double platinum.
*After an eight year hiatus, Extreme briefly returns for a short tour and a few concerts in Japan.
*Van Halen reunites with Sammy Hagar for a summer tour.
*Aerosmith returns to a raw hard rock sound with their blues cover album "Honkin' on Bobo"
* Terry Balsamo leaves Cold and joins Evanescence as their new guitarist
* Guitarist Lisa Marx joins Kittie as a session member, replacing Jeff Phillips
* Nasum guitarist/vocalist Mieszko Talarczyk dies as a result of the 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake (although his body was not identified until February 17th the following year). Consequently, Nasum would later disband.
*Maniac leaves Mayhem and is replaced by the band's former singer, Attila Csihar.
* After more than 10 years of long break, Europe release the new album titled Start from the Dark with their classic line up consist of Joey Tempest-Vocals, John Norum-Guitars, Mic Michaeli-Keyboards, John Levén-Bass, Ian Haugland-Drums. Guitarist Kee Marcello is back to his old band - Easy Action.
* Ace Thomas "Quorthon" Forsberg, founder of the Black/Viking metal band Bathory dies, at the age of 38.