1997 in heavy metal music

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

Newly formed bands

• Aletheian
• Akercocke
• American Head Charge
• The Dillinger Escape Plan
• Droid
• Elvenking
• Finntroll
• Isis
• Lostprophets
• Pig Destroyer
• Spawn of Possession
• Static-X
• Throwdown
• Turisas
• uneXpect

Reformed Bands

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

Albums

• Aerosmith – Nine Lives
• Alice Cooper – A Fistful of Alice
• Black Sabbath – Reunion
• Body Count – Violent Demise: The Last Days
• Bruce Dickinson – Accident of Birth
• Children of Bodom – Something Wild
• Coal Chamber – Coal Chamber
• Dark Tranquillity – The Mind's I
• Deftones – Around The Fur
• Deicide – Serpents of the Light
• Devin Townsend - Ocean Machine: Biomech
• The Dillinger Escape Plan – The Dillinger Escape Plan
• Dimmu Borgir – Enthrone Darkness Triumphant
• Dokken – Shadowlife
• Dream Theater – Falling into Infinity
• Edguy – Kingdom of Madness
• Electric Wizard – Come My Fanatics...
• Emperor – Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk
• Entombed – To Ride Shoot Straight And Speak The Truth
• Europe – Definitive Collection (Compilation Album)
• Faith No More – Album of the Year
• Fates Warning – A Pleasant Shade of Gray
• Freak Kitchen – Junk Tooth EP
• Gamma Ray – Somewhere Out in Space
• Godflesh – Love and Hate in Dub
• Grip Inc. - Nemesis
• HammerFall – Glory to the Brave
• Handguns – Darkest Descends
• Hed PE – Hed Pe
• Helmet – Aftertaste
• Hypocrisy - "The Final Chapter*
• Immortal – Blizzard Beasts
• Incubus – Enjoy Incubus
• Incubus – S.C.I.E.N.C.E.
• In Flames – Whoracle
• Incantation – Tribute to the Goat
• Jane's Addiction – Kettle Whistle
• Judas Priest – Jugulator
• Kiss – Carnival of Souls: The Final Sessions
• Kreator – Outcast
• Limp Bizkit Three Dollar Bill Y'all
• Yngwie J. Malmsteen – Facing the Animal
• Machine Head – The More Things Change
• Marilyn Manson - Remix & Repent
• Megadeth – Cryptic Writings
• Metallica – ReLoad
• Mötley Crüe – Generation Swine
• Mudvayne – Kill, I Oughtta
• Nightwish – Angels Fall First
• No Big Silence – 99
• Orange Goblin - Frequencies from Planet Ten
• Overkill - "From the Underground and Below" * Pig Destroyer – Demo
• Pig Destroyer – Pig Destroyer / Orchid (Split EP)
• Primus – Brown Album
• Queensrÿche – Hear in the Now Frontier
• Rammstein – Sehnsucht
• Razor – Decibels
• Rhapsody of Fire – Legendary Tales
• Rollins Band - Come in and Burn
• Rotting Christ – A Dead Poem
• Sevendust – Sevendust
• Shadows Fall – Somber Eyes to the Sky
• Snot – Get Some
• Sodom – 'Til Death Do Us Unite
• Solefald – The Linear Scaffold
• Strapping Young Lad – City
• Stratovarius – Visions
• Stratovarius – The Past And Now
• Symphony X – The Divine Wings of Tragedy
• The 3rd and the Mortal – In This Room, Streams (EP)
• U.D.O. - Solid
• Vader - "Black To The Blind"
• Vital Remains – Forever Underground
• Whitesnake – Restless Heart

Disbandments

• Acid Bath
• Jane's Addiction (reformed in 2001)
• Rollins Band (reformed in 1999)
• Soundgarden (reformed in 2010)
• 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.