1989 in heavy metal music

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

Newly formed bands

• 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
• Crowbar
• Damn Yankees
• Dark Tranquillity
• Dissection
• diSEMBOWELMENT
• Doro
• Dungeon
• Edge Of Sanity
• Falkenbach
• Fear Factory
• The Gathering
• Gorefest
• Gorguts
• Immortal
• Incantation
• Iniquity
• Isengard
• Living Sacrifice
• Marilyn Manson
• Mortician
• Necromantia
• Necrophobic
• Aggressor
• Novembers Doom
• Oomph!
• Ophthalamia
• Polluted Inheritance
• Pitch Shifter
• Reverend
• Saviour Machine
• Sentenced
• Sexart
• 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
• Anthem - Hunting Time
• 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
• Doro - Force Majeure
• Dream Theater - When Dream and Day Unite
• D.R.I. - Thrash Zone
• Earthshaker - Treachery
• 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
• Fates Warning - Perfect Symmetry
• Forbidden - Raw Evil: Live At The Dynamo
• Funebre - Cranial Torment (demo)
• Grave - Anatomia Corporis Humani (demo)
• Great White - ...Twice Shy
• Grinder - Dead End
• Gorky Park – Gorky Park
• 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
• 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
• Lȧȧz Rockit - Annihilation Principle
• Leatherwolf - Street Ready
• Living Death - Worlds Neuroses
• Lizzy Borden - "Master of Disguise"
• Lobotomia - Nada É Como Parece
• Loudness - Soldier of Fortune
• 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
• Napalm - Cruel Tranquility
• 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
• Pretty Boy Floyd - Leather Boyz With Electric Toyz
• Primus - Suck on This (live)
• Rage - Secrets in a Weird World
• Repulsion - Horrified (originally recorded in 1986, but not officially released until 1989)
• Reverend - Reverend
• Rotting Christ - The Other Side of Life (split EP with Sound Pollution)
• Rigor Mortis - Freaks
• Rollins Band - Hard Volume
• Running Wild - Death or Glory
• Rush - A Show of Hands, 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
• Vader - "Necrolust" (demo)
• Vengeance Rising - Human Sacrifice
• Venom (band) - Prime Evil
• Viking - Man Of Straw
• 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
• XYZ (US band) - XYZ (XYZ album)
• Yngwie J. Malmsteen - Trial By Fire: Live in Leningrad

Disbandments

• Cacophony
• Destruction (Schmier leaves the band)
• Dokken

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.