1988 in heavy metal music
This is a timeline documenting the events of heavy metal in the year 1988.
Newly formed bands
Albums
- AC/DC - Blow Up Your Video
- Anthrax - State of Euphoria
- Armored Saint - Saints Will Conquer
- Blind Guardian - Battalions of Fear
- Bon Jovi - New Jersey
- Jason Becker - Perpetual Burn
- Bolt Thrower - In Battle There Is No Law
- Carcass - Reek of Putrefaction
- Celtic Frost - Cold Lake
- Cinderella - Long Cold Winter
- Crimson Glory - Transcendence
- Danzig - Danzig
- Death - Leprosy
- Dokken - Beast from the East
- D.R.I. - 4 of a Kind
- Helloween - Keeper Of The Seven Keys Part 2
- Iron Maiden - Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
- Judas Priest - Ram It Down
- Killer Dwarfs- Big Deal
- King Diamond - "Them"
- King Kobra - III
- Kingdom Come - Kingdom Come
- Kiss - Smashes, Thrashes & Hits
- Lillian Axe - Lillian Axe
- Yngwie J. Malmsteen - Odyssey
- Manowar - Kings of Metal
- Megadeth - So Far, So Good... So What!
- Metallica - ...And Justice for All
- Morbid Saint - Spectrum of Death
- Motörhead - No Sleep at All (live)
- Napalm Death - From Enslavement to Obliteration
- Ozzy Osbourne - No Rest for the Wicked
- Overkill - Under the Influence
- Pantera - Power Metal
- Queensryche - Operation: Mindcrime
- Ratt - Reach for the Sky
- Running Wild - Port Royal
- Saint Vitus - Mournful Cries
- Scorpions - Savage Amusement
- Slayer - South of Heaven
- Sodom - Mortal Way Of Live
- Stone - Stone
- Suicidal Tendencies - How Will I Laugh Tomorrow When I Can't Even Smile Today (the bands first metal release)
- Stryper - In God We Trust
- Testament - The New Order
- Vio-lence - Eternal Nightmare
Events
- The Monsters of Rock tour plays across the U.S. featuring Metallica, Van Halen, Scorpions, Dokken, and Kingdom Come.
- Kai Hansen leaves Helloween due to conflicts with the bands and troubles with the record company and later forms the band Gamma Ray.
- The Decline of Western Civilization II: The Metal Years is released.
- Bon Jovi release their album New Jersey, which toped the Billboard charts for 4 weeks, ships 7x platinum and charts five Top 10 singles, the most for any one hard rock/heavy metal album.