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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
• Genghis Tron
• Job for a Cowboy
• Sturm und Drang
• Savage Circus
• Scar Symmetry
• Threat Signal
• Wintersun
• Catherine

Reformed Bands

• Extreme (for a few shows)
• 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 - Lest We Forget: The Best of
• 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
• My Dying Bride - Songs of Darkness, Words of Light
• 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 - Symphony of Enchanted Lands II: The Dark Secret
• Rush - Feedback
• Saxon - Lionheart
• Scarve - Irradiant
• Shadows Fall - The War Within
• Slipknot - Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses)
• Sonata Arctica - Reckoning Night
• Static-X - Beneath, Between, Beyond
• Stryper - 7 Weeks: Live in America, 2003
• 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

• Creed
• Damageplan

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 17 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.