1989 in heavy metal music

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

Newly formed bands

Albums

24-7 Spyz - Harder Than You
Acid Reign - The Fear
Accept - Eat the Heat
Addictive - Pity of Man
Aerosmith - Pump
Agony Column – God, Guns and Guts
Alias (US) – Metal to Infinity
Alice Cooper - Prince of Darkness (comp)
Alice Cooper - Trash
Amulance – Feel the Pain
Angelica – Angelica
The Angels, aka Angel City - Beyond Salvation
Angkor Wat – When Obscenity Becomes the Norm...Awake!
Annihilator - Alice in Hell
Anthem - Hunting Time
Apollo Ra – Ra Pariah
Atheist - Piece of Time
Autopsy - Severed Survival
The Awful Truth – The Awful Truth
Babylon A.D. - Babylon A.D.
Bad Brains - Quickness
Badlands - Badlands
Bang Tango – Live Injection
Bang Tango - Psycho Café
Barren Cross – State of Control
Beau Nasty – Dirty But Well Dressed
Believer - Extraction from Mortality
Black Sabbath - Headless Cross
Blacksmith – Fire from Within
Blind Guardian - Follow the Blind
Bloodgood - Out of the Darkness
Blue Murder - Blue Murder
Bonfire - Point Blank
Bonham – The Disregard of Timekeeping
Bolt Thrower - Realm of Chaos: Slaves to Darkness
Candlemass - Tales of Creation
Cannibal Corpse - Cannibal Corpse (demo)
Carcass - Symphonies of Sickness
Cats In Boots - Kicked and Klawed
China - Sign in the Sky
Cloven Hoof – A Sultan's Ransom
Coroner - No More Color
Coven - Death Walks Behind You
Cro-Mags - Best Wishes
Cruella – Vengeance Is Mine
Cry Wolf - Cry Wolf
The Cult - Sonic Temple
Cynic - Reflections of a Dying World (demo)
D.A.D – No Fuel Left For The Pilgrims
Damien - Stop This War
Danger Danger - Danger Danger
Dangerous Toys - Dangerous Toys
Dark Angel - Leave Scars
D.D.T. - Victims
Dead Horse – Horsecore: An Unrelated Story That's Time Consuming
Dead Brain Cells - Universe
Deliverance - Deliverance
Destruction - Live Without Sense (live)
Devastation – Signs of Life
Doro - Force Majeure
Dream Theater - When Dream and Day Unite
D.R.I. - Thrash Zone
Dirty Blonde – Passion
Dirty Looks – Turn of the Screw
Dyoxen - First Among Equals
Earthshaker - Treachery
Electric Boys - Funk-O-Metal Carpet Ride
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
EZO - Fire Fire
Faith No More - The Real Thing
Faster Pussycat – Wake Me When Its Over
Fates Warning - Perfect Symmetry
Fifth Angel – Time Will Tell
Fongus - Sobredosis de Metal
Forbidden - Raw Evil: Live at the Dynamo (EP)
Forced Entry – Uncertain Future
The Four Horsemen – The Four Horsemen (EP)
The Front - The Front
Gammacide – Victims of Science
Glory – Danger In this Game
Grave - Anatomia Corporis Humani (demo)
Great White - ...Twice Shy
Grinder - Dead End
Godflesh - Streetcleaner
Gorky Park - Gorky Park
Guardian - First Watch
Gun – Taking On the World
Heavy Pettin' – Big Bang
Heavens Gate – In Control
Heir Apparent - One Small Voice
Helix - Over 60 minutes with...
Helloween - Live in the U.K. (live)
Helstar - Nosferatu
Hermética - Hermética
Holy Moses - The New Machine of Lichtenstein
Howe II – High Gear
Icon - Right Between the Eyes
Intruder - "A Higher Form of Killing"
Jailhouse - Alive In A Mad World (EP)
Jersey Dogs – Don't Worry, Get Angry! (EP)
Junkyard – Junkyard
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 (EP)
Richie Kotzen – Richie Kotzen
L.A. Guns - Cocked & Loaded
Lȧȧz Rockit - Annihilation Principle
Lȧȧz Rockit - Holiday In Cambodia (EP)
Last Crack - Sinister Funkhouse #17
Leatherwolf - Street Ready
Lillian Axe – Love + War
Little Caesar – Name Your Poison (EP)
Living Death - Worlds Neuroses
Lizzy Borden - Master of Disguise
Lobotomia - Nada É Como Parece
Loudness - Soldier of Fortune
Macabre - Gloom
Yngwie Malmsteen - Trial by Fire: Live in Leningrad
Marchello – Destiny
Marshall Law – Marshall Law
Alex Masi – Attack of the Neon Shark
Massacra - Nearer from Death (demo)
Masters of Reality – Masters of Reality
McAuley Schenker Group - Save Yourself
Mekong Delta - The Principle of Doubt
Mercy – King Doom
Meshuggah – Meshuggah, aka Psykisk Testbild (EP)
Metal Massacre - Metal Massacre X (Compilation, various artists)
Metal Church - Blessing in Disguise
Michael Monroe – Not Fakin It
Midas Touch – Presage to Disaster
Mindless (Sinner) - Missin' Pieces
Ministry - The Mind Is a Terrible Thing to Taste
Morbid Angel - Altars of Madness
Mordred – Fools Game
Morgoth - Resurrection Absurd (EP)
Mortal Sin - Face of Despair
Mortem - Slow Death
Mr. Big - Mr. Big
Mötley Crüe - Dr. Feelgood
Mystic-Force – Take Command (EP)
Napalm - Cruel Tranquility
Nasty Savage – Penetration Point
Nine Inch Nails - Pretty Hate Machine
Nirvana (band) - Bleach
Nitro - O.F.R.
Nuclear Assault - Handle with Care
Obituary - Slowly We Rot
The Obsessed – The Obsessed
Oliver Magnum – Oliver Magnum
Onslaught - In Search of Sanity
Overkill - The Years of Decay
Paradox – Heresy
Pariah – Blaze of Obscurity
Pestilence - Consuming Impulse
Phantom Blue - Phantom Blue
Poltergeist – Depression
Pretty Boy Floyd - Leather Boyz With Electric Toyz
Primus - Suck on This (live)
Princess Pang - Self Titled album
Rage - Secrets in a Weird World
Repulsion - Horrified
Reverend - Reverend (EP)
Rotting Christ - The Other Side of Life (split EP with Sound Pollution)
Rigor Mortis - Freaks (EP)
Riot – Riot Live
Rollins Band - Hard Volume
Running Wild - Death or Glory
Rush - A Show of Hands (live)
Rush - Presto
Sabbat - Dreamweaver (Reflections of Our Yesterdays)
Sacred Reich - Alive at the Dynamo (EP)
Sacred Warrior – Master's Command
Sacrilege - Turn Back Trilobite
Saint Vitus - V
Saraya - Saraya
Sarcófago - Rotting (EP)
Joe Satriani - Flying in a Blue Dream
Savatage - Gutter Ballet
Scanner - terminal Earth
Scorpions – Best of Rockers and Ballads
Sea Hags – Sea Hags
Sepultura - Beneath the Remains
Shakin' Street – Live and Raw!
Shark Island – Law of the Order
Shotgun Messiah – Shotgun Messiah
Shout – In Your Face
Signal - Loud & Clear
Silent Rage - Don't Touch Me There
Skid Row - Skid Row
Sodom - Agent Orange
Soundgarden - Louder Than Love
Jack Starr's Burning Starr – Jack Starr's Burning Starr
Steve Stevens – Atomic Playboys
Stone - No Anaesthesia!
Stratovarius - Fright Night
Suicidal Tendencies - Controlled by Hatred/Feel Like Shit...Déjà Vu
Sweaty Nipples – Straight Outta Portland
Tankard - Hair of the Dog (comp)
Terrorizer - World Downfall
Tesla - The Great Radio Controversy
Testament - Practice What You Preach
Thanatos - Omnicoitor (demo)
Titan Force – Titan Force
TNT – Intuition
Tora Tora – Surprise Attack
Toxik - Think This
Trance – Back in Trance
T.T. Quick – Sloppy Seconds
Tyrranicide - God Save the Scene
Unseen Terror - The Peel Sessions
Vader - Necrolust (demo)
Vain – No Respect
Venom - Prime Evil
Victory – Culture Killed the Native
Viking - Man of Straw
Viper - Theatre of Fate
Voivod - Nothingface
W.A.S.P. - The Headless Children
Warrant - Dirty Rotten Filthy Stinking Rich
Watchtower - Control and Resistance
Wehrmacht - Biermacht
Whiplash – Insult to Injury
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 - XYZ
Zed Yago – Pilgrimage
Zion - Thunder From the Mountain

Disbandments

Cacophony
Destruction (Schmier leaves the band)
Dokken (reformed in 1993)
Lion

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.
Jethro Tull is awarded "Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance Vocal or Instrumental" to boos from the audience at the 31st Grammy Awards.

Preceded by 1988	Heavy Metal Timeline 1989	Succeeded by 1990