2004

2004 was a year of heavy news. The Iraq occupation and insurgency dominated the headlines, the Madrid train bombings shocked Europe in March, and the Boxing Day earthquake in the Indian Ocean ended the year in grief. Lighter relief came from Athens hosting the Olympics, Shrek 2 topping the box office, and Usher's Confessions selling more than anything else. Firefox and the Nintendo DS also turned up.

In rock and metal, the angry, expensive spectacle of nu metal was giving way to something broader. Green Day's American Idiot, out in September, turned pop punk into a full-blown political statement, and it is the year's best-known record in the vault. Slipknot's Vol. 3: (The Subliminal Verses) arrived in May, Rammstein followed with Reise, Reise, and Linkin Park pressed on with Collision Course. Megadeth's The System Has Failed brought Dave Mustaine's band back, with Chris Poland among the session players, and Motörhead delivered Inferno. Metallica's Some Kind of Monster documented a band in therapy, and the back catalogues kept coming: Nirvana's With the Lights Out, Pearl Jam's Rearviewmirror, and a pile of Queen compilations. Velvet Revolver's debut Contraband went straight to number one in America.

The losses were heavy. Bathory's Quorthon died in June, and Windir's Valfar had died in January. On 8 December Dimebag Darrell was killed on stage at a nightclub in Ohio, along with three others, while playing with Damageplan. Korn lost Brian "Head" Welch after his conversion to Christianity, and Creed split. Van Halen reunited with Sammy Hagar for a summer tour.