This is a timeline documenting the events of heavy metal in the year 1994.

Newly formed bands

• Abscess
• Amen
• Apostasy
• Ayreon
• Down
• Destroyer 666
• Dødheimsgard
• Heavenly
• Lacuna Coil
• Naer Mataron
• Rammstein
• Scarve
• Six Feet Under
• Skylark
• Slash's Snakepit
• Static-X
• Strapping Young Lad
• Symphony X
• Vintersorg

Albums

• Alice Cooper - The Last Temptation
• Alice in Chains - Jar of Flies
• Aggressor - Of Long Duration Anguish
• Black Sabbath - Cross Purposes
• Body Count - Born Dead
• Bolt Thrower - ...For Victory
• Bon Jovi - Cross Road
• Bruce Dickinson - Balls To Picasso
• Burzum - Hvis Lyset Tar Oss
• Cannibal Corpse - The Bleeding
• Cradle of Filth - The Principle of Evil Made Flesh
• Cryptopsy - Blasphemy Made Flesh
• The Cult - The Cult
• Dimmu Borgir - For All Tid
• Dio - Strange Highways
• Dream Theater - Awake
• Emperor - In the Nightside Eclipse
• Freak Kitchen - Appetizer
• Helloween - Master Of The Rings
• In Flames - Lunar Strain
• Infectious Grooves - Groove Family Cyco
• King's X - Dogman
• Korn - Korn
• Kyuss - Welcome to Sky Valley
• Tony MacAlpine - Premonition
• Machine Head - Burn My Eyes
• Yngwie J. Malmsteen - The Seventh Sign
• Marilyn Manson - Portrait of an American Family
• Mayhem - De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas
• Megadeth - Youthanasia
• Mötley Crüe - Mötley Crüe (album)
• Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral
• Overkill - W.F.O.
• Pantera - Far Beyond Driven
• Pitch Shifter - Remix War
• Satyricon - The Shadowthrone
• Savatage - Handful of Rain
• Slayer - Divine Intervention
• Soundgarden - Superunknown
• Stratovarius - Dreamspace
• Suicidal Tendencies - Suicidal for Life
• Symphony X - Symphony X
• Testament - Low
• The 3rd and the Mortal - Sorrow (EP), Tears Laid in Earth

Disbandments

• Atheist
• Follow for Now
• Lost Horizon (then known as Highlander)

Events

• Poison fires guitarist Richie Kotzen, hires Blues Saraceno.
• Far Beyond Driven by Pantera debut's at No 1 on the U.S., British and Australian charts.
• Jar of Flies was the first and only EP ever to reach #1 on the Billboard US album chart.
• Nicholas Barker becomes the drummer for Cradle Of Filth.
• Longtime Extreme drummer Paul Geary leaves the band is replaced by Michael Mangini.
• Testament release their sixth album Low. It is their first album recorded without original guitarist Alex Skolnick and drummer Louie Clemente, who both left the band a year before, and also their last with longtime bassist Greg Christian, who left two years later.