1997 in heavy metal music

Last updated November 05, 2025

This is a timeline documenting the events of heavy metal in the year 1997.

Newly formed bands

Reformed bands

The original Black Sabbath lineup
Jane's Addiction (disbanded again later that year)
Ratt
Suicidal Tendencies

Albums

20 Dead Flower Children – Candy Toy Guns and Television
41 Down – 41 Down (early version of Trust Company under their original name)
Acid King – Down with the Crown (EP)
Aerosmith – Nine Lives
Acumen Nation – More Human Heart
Alice Cooper – A Fistful of Alice (live)
Anvil – Absolutely No Alternative
Anal Cunt – I Like It When You Die
Arcturus – La Masquerade Infernale
Assück – Misery Index
Belphegor – Blutsabbath
Blackstar – Barbed Wire Soul
Blood of Christ – ...A Dream to Remember
Body Count – Violent Demise: The Last Days
Borknagar – The Olden Domain
Bruce Dickinson – Accident of Birth
Brutal Truth – Sounds of the Animal Kingdom
Children of Bodom – Something Wild (Finland release)
Cinderella – Once Upon A...
Clawfinger – Clawfinger
Coal Chamber – Coal Chamber
Conception – Flow
Creed – My Own Prison
The Crown – Eternal Death
D.A.D. – Simpatico
Damaged – Token Remedies Research
Dark Tranquillity – The Mind's I
Deceased – Fearless Undead Machines
Deftones – Around the Fur
Deicide – Serpents of the Light
Devin Townsend – Ocean Machine: Biomech
The Dillinger Escape Plan – The Dillinger Escape Plan (EP)
Dimmu Borgir – Enthrone Darkness Triumphant
Dismember – Death Metal
Dog Fashion Disco – Erotic Massage
Dokken – Shadowlife
Dream Theater – Falling into Infinity
Ebony Tears – Tortura Insomniae
Edguy – Kingdom of Madness
Edge of Sanity – Infernal
Edge of Sanity – Cryptic
Electric Wizard – Come My Fanatics... ^[1]
Emperor – Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk
Enslaved – Eld
Entombed – To Ride Shoot Straight and Speak the Truth
Europe – Definitive Collection (compilation)
Factory 81 – Crawl Space (EP)
Faith No More – Album of the Year
Far – Soon (EP)
Fates Warning – A Pleasant Shade of Gray
Flapjack – Juicy Planet Earth
Freak Kitchen – Junk Tooth (EP)
Gamma Ray – Somewhere Out in Space
The Gathering – Nighttime Birds
Geezer – Black Science
Gilby Clarke – The Hangover (Gilby Clarke album)
Glassjaw – Kiss Kiss Bang Bang (EP)
Godflesh – Love and Hate in Dub (remix)
Godsmack – All Wound Up...
Gorgoroth – Under the Sign of Hell
Graveworm – When Daylight's Gone
Grip Inc. – Nemesis
Grinspoon – Guide to Better Living
Grinspoon – Repeat (EP)
Guano Apes – Proud Like a God
Gwar – Carnival of Chaos
HammerFall – Glory to the Brave
Handsome – Handsome
Hatebreed – Satisfaction Is the Death of Desire
Hed PE – (həd)^pe
Helmet – Aftertaste
HIM – Greatest Lovesongs Vol. 666
Hoobastank – Muffins (EP)
Human Waste Project – E-lux
Hypocrisy – The Final Chapter
Iced Earth – Days of Purgatory (remix)
Illdisposed – There's Something Rotten... In the State of Denmark
Immortal – Blizzard Beasts
In Flames – Whoracle
Incantation – The Forsaken Mourning of Angelic Anguish (EP)
Incantation – Tribute to the Goat (live)
Incubus – Enjoy Incubus (EP)
Incubus – S.C.I.E.N.C.E.
Integrity – Seasons in the Size of Days
Iron Savior – Iron Savior
Jag Panzer – The Fourth Judgement
Jane's Addiction – Kettle Whistle (compilation)
Jimmie's Chicken Shack – Pushing the Salmanilla Envelope
Judas Priest – Jugulator
Kamelot – Dominion
Keep of Kalessin – Through Times of War
Kiss – Carnival of Souls: The Final Sessions
Konkhra – Weed Out the Weak
Krabathor – Mortal Memories (EP)
Kreator – Outcast
Lacrimosa – Stille
L7 – The Beauty Process: Triple Platinum
Lostprophets – Here Cumz Tha Party (EP)
Life of Agony – Soul Searching Sun
Limp Bizkit – Three Dollar Bill, Y'all$
Yngwie Malmsteen – Facing the Animal
Machine Head – The More Things Change...
Malevolent Creation – In Cold Blood
Marilyn Manson – Remix & Repent (EP)
Megadeth – Cryptic Writings
Memento Mori – Songs for the Apocalypse, Vol. 4
Metallica – ReLoad
Molotov – ¿Dónde Jugarán las Niñas?
Morgion – Among Majestic Ruin
Mötley Crüe – Generation Swine
Mudvayne – Kill, I Oughtta (EP)
Napalm Death – Inside the Torn Apart
Necrophobic – Darkside
Nembrionic – Bloodcult (EP)
Neuraxis - Imagery
Night in Gales – Towards the Twilight
Nightwish – Angels Fall First
Nothingface – Pacifier
No-Big-Silence – 99
No One Is Innocent – Utopia
Novembers Doom – For Every Leaf That Falls (EP)
Obituary – Back from the Dead
Old Man's Child – The Pagan Prosperity
On Thorns I Lay – Orama
Orange Goblin – Frequencies from Planet Ten
Overkill – From the Underground and Below
Ozzy Osbourne – The Ozzman Cometh
Pain - Pain
Pain of Salvation – Entropia
Pantera – Official Live: 101 Proof (live)
Pessimist – Cult of the Initiated
Papa Roach – Old Friends from Young Years
Pig Destroyer – Demo (EP)
Pig Destroyer – Pig Destroyer / Orchid (split EP)
Powerman 5000 – Mega!! Kung Fu Radio
Primus – Brown Album
Queensrÿche – Hear in the Now Frontier
Rammstein – Sehnsucht
Razor – Decibels
Rhapsody – Legendary Tales
Rollins Band – Come In and Burn
Rotting Christ – A Dead Poem
Roxx Gang – Love 'Em and Leave 'Em
Saliva – Saliva
Salmon – Paco... Drop the Chicken
Savatage – The Wake of Magellan
Saxon – Unleash the Beast
Scorpions – Deadly Sting: The Mercury Years
Septicflesh – The Ophidian Wheel
Sevendust – Sevendust
Shadows Fall – Somber Eyes to the Sky
Shootyz Groove – Hipnosis
Six Feet Under – Warpath
Skinlab – Bound, Gagged and Blindfolded
Slaughter – Revolution
Slaves on Dope – One Good Turn Deserves Another
Slo Burn – Amusing the Amazing (EP)
Snot – Get Some
Sodom – 'Til Death Do Us Unite
Solefald – The Linear Scaffold
Soundgarden – A-Sides
Strapping Young Lad – City
Stratovarius – Visions
Stratovarius – The Past and Now (compilation)
Sugar Ray – Floored
Symphony X – The Divine Wings of Tragedy
Tad Morose – A Mended Rhyme
The 3rd and the Mortal – In This Room
The Newlydeads – The Newlydeads
Therion – A'arab Zaraq – Lucid Dreaming
Transport League – Superevil
Tura Satana – Relief Through Release
U.D.O. – Solid
The Union Underground – The Union Underground
Unleashed – Warrior
Vader – Black to the Blind
Vital Remains – Forever Underground
Warrant – Warrant Live 86–97 (live)
Whitesnake – Restless Heart
Windir – Sóknardalr
Within Temptation – Enter
W.A.S.P. – Kill Fuck Die
Xero – Xero (EP; early version of Linkin Park under their original name)
Y&T – Endangered Species
Zimmers Hole – Bound by Fire

Disbandments

Acid Bath
Jane's Addiction (reformed in 2001)
Osvajači (reformed in 1999)
Rollins Band (reformed in 1999)
Soundgarden (reformed in 2010)
Torque
X Japan (reformed in 2007)

Events

Mötley Crüe and former vocalist Vince Neil reconcile their differences, and Neil rejoins the band.
Black Sabbath reunites with the original line-up between Black Sabbath and Never Say Die! .
Bassist Mooseman leaves Body Count and is replaced by Griz. Meanwhile, the late drummer Beatmaster V is replaced by O.T.
After a two-year hiatus, vocalist Mike Muir and rhythm guitarist Mike Clark reform Suicidal Tendencies. Rocky George and Robert Trujillo are replaced by Dean Pleasants and Josh Paul on guitar and bass respectively, and future Bad Religion drummer Brooks Wackerman also joins.
The Mentors frontman, El Duce, is killed when hit by a train.
Former Slipknot vocalist, Anders Colsefni, is replaced with current lead singer of Slipknot, Corey Taylor.

References

↑ "Electric Wizard – "Come My Fanatics"". Rise Above Records. Archived from the original on 6 March 2001. Retrieved 6 June 2017.

Preceded by 1996	Heavy Metal Timeline 1997	Succeeded by 1998

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[ra-archive-1] "Electric Wizard – "Come My Fanatics"". Rise Above Records. Archived from the original on 6 March 2001. Retrieved 6 June 2017.

[1]

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