1991 in heavy metal music
This is a timeline documenting the events of heavy metal in the year 1991.
Newly formed bands
- Angra
- Behemoth
- Cradle of Filth
- Emperor
- Enslaved
- Labyrinth
- Nevermore
- Rage Against the Machine
- Wolfgang
Albums
- Alice Cooper - Hey Stoopid
- Anthrax - Attack of the Killer B's
- Bolt Thrower - War Master
- Armored Saint - [[* Symbol of Salvation
- Cannibal Corpse - Butchered at Birth
- Dark Angel - Time Does Not Heal
- Death - Human
- Fates Warning - Parallels
- Forced Entry - As Above, So Below
- Helloween - Pink Bubbles Go Ape
- Infectious Grooves - The Plague That Makes Your Booty Move...It's the Infectious Grooves
- Richie Kotzen - Electric Joy
- Kyuss - Wretch
- Yngwie J. Malmsteen - The Yngwie Malmsteen Collection
- Metal Church - The Human Factor
- Metallica - Metallica
- Monster Magnet - Spine of God
- Motörhead - 1916
- Overkill - Horrorscope
- Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears
- Pitch shifter - Industrial
- Primus - Sailing the Seas of Cheese
- Prong - Prove You Wrong
- Rush - Roll the Bones
- Savatage - Streets: A Rock Opera
- Sepultura - Arise
- Skid Row - Slave to the Grind
- Stratovarius - Stratovarius II
- Stryper - Can't Stop the Rock
Disbandments
Events
- Queen frontman Freddie Mercury dies of AIDS induced bronchial pneumonia.
- Def Leppard guitarist Steve Clark dies in January 8 due to compression of the brain stem from excessive alcohol mixed with anti-depressants and painkillers (as a result of a rib injury).
- Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody" goes to number one in the UK for the second time, the only song to ever go to number one more then once in the same version. It has now spent 14 weeks at number one.
- KISS Drummer - Eric Carr dies at age 41 on November 24. As a tribute, the group's 1992 release Revenge featured what is said to be the only drum solo Carr ever recorded with the band, which was titled "Carr Jam 1981".
- Skid Row's second album Slave to the Grind becomes the first and only 90s classic heavy metal album to debut at No.1 in the Billboard music charts in the 90s.
- Metallica's self-titled Black Album becomes the first album by a thrash band to hit No.1 in the Billboard music charts.
- Skid Row, Guns N' Roses, and Metallica's albums all debut #1, at that time they were all in tour together.
- Mayhem’s vocalist, Per Yngve Ohlin aka Dead, kills himself by shooting himself in the head with a shotgun and slitting his wrists with a hunting knife. He left a note reading "excuse all the blood". Photographs of his corpse taken by bandmate, Euronymous, were later used for as the album art of the album Dawn of the Black Hearts.