1976 in heavy metal music

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

Newly formed bands

• Accept
• Bronz
• Diamond Head^[1]
• Ethel the Frog
• Heavy Load
• Kick Axe
• Marseille
• The Obsessed
• Ratt
• Rose Tattoo
• The Runaways
• Running Wild
• Savage
• Sorcery
• Spider
• Saxon
• Sister
• Vow Wow
• Zoetrope

Albums

March

Day	Artist	Album
15	Kiss	Destroyer[2]
23	Judas Priest	Sad Wings of Destiny[3]
26	Thin Lizzy	Jailbreak[4]
31	Led Zeppelin	Presence[5]
???	Sweet	Give Us a Wink[6]

April

Day	Artist	Album
1	Rush	2112[7]

May

Day	Artist	Album
3	Aerosmith	Rocks[8]
14	AC/DC	High Voltage (international edition)[9]
17	Rainbow	Rising[10]
21	Blue Öyster Cult	Agents of Fortune[11]
???	UFO	No Heavy Petting[12]

June

Day	Artist	Album
25	Alice Cooper	Alice Cooper Goes to Hell[13]
???	Uriah Heep	High and Mighty[14]

September

Day	Artist	Album
20	AC/DC	Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap (Australian edition)[15]
25	Black Sabbath	Technical Ecstasy[16]
28	Led Zeppelin	The Song Remains the Same[17]
29	Rush	All the World's a Stage[18]

October

Day	Artist	Album
9	Scorpions	Virgin Killer[19]
16	Thin Lizzy	Johnny the Fox[20]
???	Ted Nugent	Free-for-All[21]

November

Day	Artist	Album
11	Kiss	Rock and Roll Over[22]

December

Day	Artist	Album
10	Queen	A Day at the Races[23]

Disbandments

• Deep Purple
• Sammy Hagar leaves Montrose to go solo.^[24]

Events

• Guitarist "Fast" Eddie Clarke joins Motörhead and Larry Wallis leaves after a month.
• 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

1. "Diamond Head Bio". Allmusic. Retrieved 2009-05-08.
2. "Destroyer". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-04-25.
3. "Sad Wings of Destiny". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-04-25.
4. "Jailbreak". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-04-25.
5. "Presence". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-04-25.
6. "Give Us a Wink". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-04-25.
7. "2112". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-04-25.
8. "Rocks". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-04-25.
9. "High Voltage". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-04-25.
10. "Rising". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-04-25.
11. "Agents of Fortune". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-04-25.
12. "No Heavy Petting". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-04-25.
13. "Alice Cooper Goes to Hell". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-04-25.
14. "High and Mighty". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-04-25.
15. "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-04-25.
16. "Technical Ecstasy". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-04-25.
17. "The Song Remains the Same". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-04-25.
18. "The Song Remains the Same". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-04-25.
19. "Virgin Killer". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-04-25.
20. "Johnny the Fox". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-04-25.
21. "Free-for-All". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-04-25.
22. "Rock and Roll Over". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-04-25.
23. "A Day at the Races". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-04-25.
24. "Sammy Hagar Bio". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-10-10.