This is a timeline documenting the events of heavy metal music in the year 1996.

Newly formed bands

• 3 Doors Down
• Ajattara
• Alabama Thunderpussy
• Alien Ant Farm
• Averse Sefira
• Breed 77
• Cattle Decapitation
• Combatwoundedveteran
• Control Denied
• The Crest
• Daylight Dies
• Decapitated
• Diabolic
• Dornenreich
• Drowning Pool
• Ebony Tears
• Fall of the Leafe
• Flaw (as F.law)
• Gardenian
• Goatsnake
• God Forbid
• Gojira
• The Haunted
• Heaven Shall Burn
• Hibria
• Into Eternity
• Iron Savior
• Kiss It Goodbye
• Kittie
• Linkin Park (as Xero)
• Manticora
• Maudlin of the Well
• MD.45
• Mudvayne
• Nargaroth
• Narnia
• Nashville Pussy
• Nightwish
• Nocturnal Breed
• Norther
• Omnium Gatherum
• Orden Ogan
• Pain
• Penumbra
• Prayer for Cleansing
• Queens of the Stone Age
• Racetraitor
• Saliva
• Samsas Traum
• Sculptured
• Shining
• The Sins of Thy Beloved
• Soulburn
• Spineshank
• Spirit Caravan
• Stam1na
• Training for Utopia
• Trans-Siberian Orchestra
• Tvangeste
• Two
• Ultraspank
• uneXpect
• The Union Underground
• Within Temptation
• Yob

Albums

Disbandments

• Beherit
• Carnis
• Damn Yankees
• Down
• Extreme
• Prong
• Sexart
• Skid Row
• Trouble

Events

• Alice in Chains plays their last concert with Layne Staley on July 23, 1996. They later go on hiatus until April 20, 2002, in which Staley is found dead in his apartment after overdosing on a speedball.
• Body Count drummer Beatmaster V dies of leukemia.
• The first Ozzfest tour sets off, with headliners Ozzy Osbourne, Slayer and Danzig.
• The original line-up of KISS (Ace Frehley, Gene Simmons, Peter Criss, Paul Stanley) come back together.
• Bassist Greg Christian of Testament left the band, leaving guitarist Eric Peterson as the sole ever-present in the line-up.
• Slash leaves Guns N' Roses, citing differences with Axl Rose
• Sammy Hagar departs Van Halen after a feud with Eddie Van Halen. Van Halen briefly reunites with David Lee Roth at a highly publicized event at the MTV Video Music Awards, but fires him shortly thereafter.
• Tim 'Ripper' Owens fills the void left by Rob Halford in 1993 as lead singer of Judas Priest.