1976 in heavy metal music

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

Newly formed bands

• Diamond Head^[1]
• Iron Maiden (by Steve Harris)^[2]
• Running Wild
• Sammy Hagar^[3]
• Raven

Albums

• AC/DC - High Voltage
• AC/DC - Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap
• 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
• The Kinks - Schoolboys in Disgrace
• 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
• Sweet - Give Us a Wink
• 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.^[4]

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 4 during the Private Eyes tour, just after his last show on stage.

References