# 2008 in heavy metal music

This is a timeline documenting the events of heavy metal in the year 2008.

## Bands formed

* A Sound of Thunder
* A Storm of Light
* Aeon Zen
* Allegaeon
* Amaranthe
* Arkaea
* Austrian Death Machine
* Betraying the Martyrs
* Bölzer
* Bombus
* Cain's Offering
* Chickenfoot
* Christian Mistress
* City of Fire
* Code Orange
* Ex Deo
* From Fall to Spring
* God Seed
* Hamferð
* Holy Grail
* King of Asgard
* Krypts
* Lustre
* Pallbearer
* Power Trip
* Revolution Renaissance
* Solution .45
* Tears of Tragedy
* The Empire Shall Fall
* Triptykon
* Uneven Structure

## Reformed bands

* At the Gates (for a few shows)
* Carcass (for touring)
* Einherjer (for touring)
* Exhorder (for a few tours and some new material)
* Forbidden (for a few shows)
* Krokus
* Living Sacrifice
* Spineshank

## Disbandments

* Alabama Thunderpussy
* Beneath the Sky
* Byzantine
* Celtic Frost
* Dead to Fall
* Demigod
* The Duskfall
* From Autumn to Ashes
* Himsa
* Knorkator
* Ministry
* Sieges Even
* Sikth
* Still Remains
* The Red Death
* The Agony Scene
* Remove the Veil

## Events

* Twiggy Ramirez rejoins Marilyn Manson in early January.
* Mikael Åkerfeldt rejoins Bloodbath in late January.
* Ola Frenning leaves Soilwork in February.
* Chris Broderick joins Megadeth in February.
* Timo Tolkki leaves Stratovarius after some internal troubles in March.
* Thomas Gabriel Fischer leaves Celtic Frost in April.
* Singer Lisa Middelhauve leaves Xandria in April.
* On May 11, original Rush drummer John Rutsey died in his sleep from an apparent heart attack.
* Blasphemer leaves Mayhem in May.
* Mike Kimball leaves Dying Fetus in May.
* On July 27, former White Spirit and Tank drummer Graeme Crallan died after a fall in a London street.
* Wes Borland joins Marilyn Manson's lineup in mid-August.
* D.R.I. guitarist Spike Cassidy makes a full recovery from cancer.
* Snot reforms with ex-Divine Heresy vocalist Tommy Vext.
* Michael Nicklasson leaves Dark Tranquillity in August.
* Jeff Singer leaves Paradise Lost in August.
* Christian "Witchhunter" Dudek, ex-drummer of Sodom, dies of liver failure on September 7.
* Christian Älvestam leaves Scar Symmetry in September.
* Peter Wichers rejoins Soilwork in September.
* Tormentor rejoins Gorgoroth in September, as does Pest in December.
* Denny Axelsson, vocalist of Blinded Colony, leaves the band.
* Former Marilyn Manson bassist Gidget Gein dies of a heroin overdose.
* Josh Freese plans to depart from Nine Inch Nails by the end of 2008.
* John Kempainen leaves The Black Dahlia Murder in December.
* Job For A Cowboy founding member and guitarist Ravi Bhadriraju leaves the band in late 2008.
* Al Glassman leaves Despised Icon to join Job For A Cowboy.
* Gaahl (ex-Gorgoroth) reveals his homosexuality.

## Albums released
### January

| Day | Artist | Album |
| 2 | In Mourning | Shrouded Divine |
| 8 | For the Fallen Dreams | Changes |
| 11 | Benedictum | Seasons of Tragedy |
| 22 | Byzantine | Oblivion Beckons |
| 22 | The Red Death | Godmakers |
| 22 | With Blood Comes Cleansing | Horror |
| 25 | Alestorm | Captain Morgan's Revenge |
| 25 | Avantasia | The Scarecrow |
| 25 | Ayreon | 01011001 |
| 25 | Brainstorm | Downburst |
| 28 | Bullet for My Valentine | Scream Aim Fire |
| 28 | Heaven Shall Burn | Iconoclast |
| 29 | Decrepit Birth | Diminishing Between Worlds |
| 29 | Protest the Hero | Fortress |

### February

| Day | Artist | Album |
| 4 | Baptism | Grim Arts of Melancholy |
| 4 | Hate | Morphosis |
| 4 | Iron Maiden | Live After Death |
| 4 | Sworn Enemy | Maniacal |
| 5 | Brain Drill | Apocalyptic Feasting |
| 5 | Salt the Wound | Carnal Repercussions |
| 5 | Warbringer | War Without End |
| 5 | Winds of Plague | Decimate the Weak |
| 8 | Behexen | My Soul for His Glory |
| 12 | Texas Hippie Coalition | Pride of Texas |
| 13 | Norther | N |
| 15 | Eluveitie | Slania |
| 18 | Hellhammer | Demon Entrails |
| 18 | To-Mera | Delusions |
| 19 | Ascension of the Watchers | Numinosum |
| 19 | Dead to Fall | Are You Serious? |
| 19 | Genghis Tron | Board Up the House |
| 19 | Hate Eternal | Fury & Flames |
| 19 | Sculptured | Embodiment: Collapsing Under the Weight of God |
| 19 | Virgin Black | Requiem – Fortissimo |
| 22 | Exciter | Thrash Speed Burn |
| 22 | Metalium | Incubus - Chapter Seven |
| 22 | Nortt | Galgenfrist |
| 22 | Steel Attack | Carpe DiEnd |
| 22 | Stormwarrior | Heading Northe |
| 22 | Rage | Carved in Stone |
| 22 | Unheilig | Puppenspiel |
| 25 | Dark Fortress | Eidolon |
| 25 | Dark Suns | Grave Human Genuine |
| 26 | Death Angel | Killing Season |
| 26 | myGRAIN | Signs of Existence |
| 29 | Agalloch | The White |
| 29 | Draconian | Turning Season Within |

### March

| Day | Artist | Album |
| 2 | Nine Inch Nails | Ghosts I–IV |
| 3 | Azaghal | Omega |
| 4 | Nasum | Doombringer |
| 4 | Our Last Night | The Ghosts Among Us |
| 7 | Boris | Smile |
| 7 | Meshuggah | obZen |
| 8 | Scarlet Sins | Scarlet Sins |
| 9 | Buckethead | From the Coop |
| 10 | Bloodbath | Unblessing the Purity |
| 11 | Zimmer's Hole | When You Were Shouting at the Devil... |
| 12 | Shade Empire | Zero Nexus |
| 18 | Black Tide | Light from Above |
| 18 | Bury Your Dead | Bury Your Dead |
| 19 | The Black Mages | The Black Mages III: Darkness and Starlight |
| 19 | Hypocrisy | Catch 22 (V2.0.08) (Re-release) |
| 20 | Cataract | Cataract |
| 21 | Firewind | The Premonition |
| 21 | Jon Oliva's Pain | Global Warning |
| 21 | Korpiklaani | Korven Kuningas |
| 24 | Cavalera Conspiracy | Inflikted |
| 25 | Mercenary | Architect of Lies |
| 28 | Illdisposed | The Prestige |
| 28 | Kamelot | Ghost Opera: The Second Coming |
| 29 | Dream Theater | Greatest Hit (...and 21 Other Pretty Cool Songs) |
| 31 | Strapping Young Lad | 1994–2006 Chaos Years |

### April

| Day | Artist | Album |
| 1 | Dismember | Dismember |
| 1 | Origin | Antithesis |
| 1 | Sevendust | Chapter VII: Hope & Sorrow |
| 1 | Septic Flesh | Communion |
| 1 | The Sword | Gods of the Earth |
| 1 | Theory of a Deadman | Scars & Souvenirs |
| 4 | In Flames | A Sense of Purpose |
| 7 | Children of Bodom | Blooddrunk |
| 8 | P.O.D. | When Angels & Serpents Dance |
| 14 | Mirrorthrone | Gangrene |
| 15 | Arsis | We Are the Nightmare |
| 15 | Belphegor | Bondage Goat Zombie |
| 15 | Destroy the Runner | I, Lucifer |
| 15 | Embrace the End | Ley Lines |
| 15 | Thine Eyes Bleed | Thine Eyes Bleed |
| 18 | Tiamat | Amanethes |
| 21 | Grave | Dominion VIII |
| 22 | Dominici | O3: A Trilogy, Part Three |
| 22 | Story of the Year | The Black Swan |
| 22 | Whitesnake | Good to be Bad |
| 23 | Kalmah | For the Revolution |
| 25 | Def Leppard | Songs from the Sparkle Lounge |
| 25 | Warrel Dane | Praises to the War Machine |
| 28 | Deicide | Till Death Do Us Part |
| 28 | My Dying Bride | An Ode to Woe |
| 29 | Sea of Treachery | At Daggers Drawn |
| 29 | Testament | The Formation of Damnation |
| 30 | Moonsorrow | Tulimyrsky |

### May

| Day | Artist | Album |
| 5 | Nine Inch Nails | The Slip |
| 5 | Scott Kelly | The Wake |
| 5 | Textures | Silhouettes |
| 6 | Kayo Dot | Blue Lambency Downward |
| 6 | Revocation | Empire of the Obscene |
| 6 | Russian Circles | Station |
| 13 | Abysmal Dawn | Programmed To Consume |
| 13 | Aletheian | Dying Vine |
| 13 | Emmure | The Respect Issue |
| 13 | Mourning Beloveth | A Disease for the Ages |
| 14 | Diablo | Icaros |
| 16 | Moonspell | Night Eternal |
| 23 | Cryptopsy | The Unspoken King |
| 23 | Kataklysm | Prevail |
| 26 | Ihsahn | angL |
| 26 | Shai Hulud | Misanthropy Pure |
| 30 | Communic | Payment of Existence |
| 30 | Hollenthon | Opus Magnum |
| 30 | Opeth | Watershed |
| 30 | Pyramaze | Immortal |
| 30 | Sabaton | The Art of War |

### June

| Day | Artist | Album |
| 2 | Bloodbath | The Wacken Carnage |
| 2 | Disturbed | Indestructible |
| 2 | Satyricon | My Skin Is Cold |
| 9 | Gama Bomb | Citizen Brain |
| 9 | Unleashed | Hammer Battalion |
| 9 | Venom | Hell |
| 10 | Inhale Exhale | I Swear... |
| 10 | Nachtmystium | Assassins: Black Meddle, Part 1 |
| 11 | Ari Koivunen | Becoming |
| 13 | Grand Magus | Iron Will |
| 13 | Judas Priest | Nostradamus |
| 16 | Cult of Luna | Eternal Kingdom |
| 16 | Exit Ten | Remember the Day |
| 17 | Mötley Crüe | Saints of Los Angeles |
| 20 | Scar Symmetry | Holographic Universe |
| 24 | Aborted | Strychnine.213 |
| 24 | Carnifex | The Diseased and the Poisoned |
| 27 | Equilibrium | Sagas |
| 29 | Khold | Hundre År Gammal |
| 30 | Raunchy | Wasteland Discotheque |

### July

| Day | Artist | Album |
| 1 | Lamb of God | Walk with Me in Hell |
| 7 | Blaze Bayley | The Man Who Would Not Die |
| 7 | Stone Gods | Silver Spoons & Broken Bones |
| 8 | Cannibal Corpse | Centuries of Torment: The First 20 Years |
| 8 | Whitechapel | This Is Exile |
| 14 | Daylight Dies | Lost to the Living |
| 18 | Chrome Division | Booze, Broads and Beelzebub |
| 18 | Fear My Thoughts | Isolation |
| 21 | Krisiun | Southern Storm |
| 22 | Misery Signals | Controller |
| 22 | Neuraxis | The Thin Line Between |
| 22 | Nine Inch Nails | The Slip |
| 22 | War of Ages | Arise and Conquer |
| 27 | Chelsea Grin | Chelsea Grin (EP) |
| 29 | Soulfly | Conquer |
| 29 | Dr. Acula | Below Me |

### August

| Day | Artist | Album |
| 5 | Norma Jean | The Anti Mother |
| 12 | Extreme | Saudades de Rock |
| 19 | The Acacia Strain | Continent |
| 19 | The Human Abstract | Midheaven |
| 19 | Machinae Supremacy | Overworld |
| 19 | The Showdown | Back Breaker |
| 19 | Staind | The Illusion of Progress |
| 20 | DragonForce | Ultra Beatdown |
| 20 | Slipknot | All Hope Is Gone |
| 22 | Oomph! | Monster |
| 25 | Into Eternity | The Incurable Tragedy |
| 26 | Motörhead | Motörizer |
| 29 | Angband | Rising from Apadana |
| 29 | Destruction | D.E.V.O.L.U.T.I.O.N. |
| 29 | Haggard | Tales of Ithiria |
| 25 | Acid Drinkers | Verses of Steel |

### September

| Day | Artist | Album |
| 1 | The Berzerker | The Reawakening |
| 1 | Volbeat | Guitar Gangsters & Cadillac Blood |
| 1 | Welicoruss | WinterMoon Symphony |
| 2 | Blessed by a Broken Heart | Pedal to the Metal |
| 5 | All Shall Perish | Awaken the Dreamers |
| 5 | Iced Earth | The Crucible of Man |
| 9 | Brian "Head" Welch | Save Me From Myself |
| 12 | Metallica | Death Magnetic |
| 16 | All That Remains | Overcome |
| 16 | Andromeda | The Immunity Zone |
| 16 | Avenged Sevenfold | Live in the LBC & Diamonds in the Rough |
| 16 | Intronaut | Prehistoricisms |
| 16 | Obituary | Left to Die |
| 17 | Amon Amarth | Twilight of the Thunder God |
| 17 | Swallow the Sun | Plague of Butterflies |
| 17 | The Haunted | Versus |
| 19 | Evergrey | Torn |
| 19 | Falchion | Chronicles of the Dead |
| 19 | Sonic Syndicate | Love and Other Disasters |
| 22 | Omnium Gatherum | The Redshift |
| 23 | Metal Church | This Present Wasteland |
| 24 | Battlelore | The Last Alliance |
| 26 | Holy Moses | Agony of Death |
| 26 | Psycroptic | Ob(Servant) |
| 29 | Bring Me the Horizon | Suicide Season |
| 29 | Enslaved | Vertebrae |
| 29 | Dagoba | Face The Colossus |
| 30 | Bleeding Through | Declaration |
| 30 | Dream Theater | Chaos in Motion 2007–2008 |
| 30 | In This Moment | The Dream |
| 30 | Jeff Loomis | Zero Order Phase |
| 30 | Megadeth | Anthology: Set the World Afire |
| 30 | Suspyre | When Time Fades... |
| 30 | Trivium | Shogun |

### October

| Day | Artist | Album |
| 6 | Bloodbath | The Fathomless Mastery |
| 7 | Tesla | Forever More |
| 13 | Gojira | The Way of All Flesh |
| 14 | Haste the Day | Dreamer |
| 14 | Unearth | The March |
| 14 | Winterfylleth | The Ghost of Heritage |
| 14 | Yngwie Malmsteen | Perpetual Flame |
| 17 | Zonaria | The Cancer Empire |
| 20 | The Amenta | n0n |
| 20 | Darkthrone | Dark Thrones and Black Flags |
| 21 | Disciple | Southern Hospitality |
| 21 | See You Next Tuesday | Intervals |
| 22 | Thyrfing | Hels vite |
| 22 | AC/DC | Black Ice |
| 23 | Lordi | Deadache |
| 24 | Darkane | Demonic Art |
| 24 | Catamenia | VIII - The Time Unchained |
| 24 | Sylosis | Conclusion of an Age |
| 25 | Cradle of Filth | Godspeed on the Devil's Thunder |
| 28 | Beneath the Massacre | Dystopia |
| 28 | Exodus | Let There Be Blood |

### November

| Day | Artist | Album |
| 3 | Satyricon | The Age of Nero |
| 3 | Turisas | A Finnish Summer With Turisas |
| 10 | The Red Shore | Unconsecrated |
| 11 | Attack Attack! | Someday Came Suddenly |
| 11 | Behemoth | Ezkaton |
| 11 | Dance Club Massacre | Circle of Death |
| 11 | Dir En Grey | Uroboros |
| 11 | The Faceless | Planetary Duality |
| 11 | Light This City | Stormchaser |
| 11 | Six Feet Under | Death Rituals |
| 11 | Sympathy | Anagogic Tyranny |
| 11 | Pig Destroyer | Natasha (EP) |
| 14 | Edguy | Tinnitus Sanctus |
| 14 | Elvenking | Two Tragedy Poets (...and a Caravan of Weird Figures) |
| 14 | Hortus Animae | Funeral Nation / 10 Years Of Hortus Animae |
| 17 | Cynic | Traced in Air |
| 18 | Mononc' Serge & Anonymus | Musique Barbare |
| 18 | Mudvayne | The New Game |
| 24 | Arch Enemy | Tyrants of the Rising Sun |
| 25 | Becoming the Archetype | Dichotomy |

### December

| Day | Artist | Album |
| 18 | Tankard | Thirst |