2012

In 2012 the Costa Concordia ran aground off Italy, Britain marked the Queen's Diamond Jubilee, and the Encyclopædia Britannica stopped printing after 246 years. Chelsea won the Champions League in Munich, Loreen took Eurovision with "Euphoria", and the music business hit a peak in US download sales, with the decline starting straight afterwards.

In rock and metal, the big names mostly kept faith with their own formulas. Linkin Park's Living Things leaned into electronics and pop, while Deftones answered with the dreamier, heavier Koi no Yokan. Soundgarden came back with King Animal, and The Smashing Pumpkins released Oceania. Green Day went large, issuing ¡Uno!, ¡Dos! and ¡Tré! in the space of three months. Live albums did a lot of the heavy lifting too: Led Zeppelin's Celebration Day, AC/DC's Live at River Plate, Iron Maiden's En Vivo! and Korn's Palladium show all turned up. Slipknot offered Antennas to Hell, and Motörhead added the second Wörld Is Ours volume.

The year was untidy for the genre. Tony Iommi's lymphoma diagnosis was followed by Bill Ward leaving Black Sabbath. Queensrÿche parted ways with Geoff Tate and hired Todd La Torre. Killswitch Engage swapped Howard Jones for Jesse Leach, and Slayer's Jeff Hanneman stayed away while recovering, with Gary Holt covering. Lamb of God's Randy Blythe was arrested in Prague after a fan's death and spent five weeks in prison before release. Underoath and Cathedral called it a day, while Coal Chamber and The Obsessed returned. Sonisphere's Knebworth festival was cancelled.