10 Albums We’re Still Patiently Waiting For

Yes, we hounded Tool for a new album for 13 straight years, but overall, metalheads are pretty patient. Instead of losing interest in our favorite bands, we clamor for new material while sometimes watching our hair turn grey in the process.

We desperately want another Surgical Steel or At War With Reality, and some of these 10 albums have the potential to be just has historic… you know, if they actually come out.

Cult albums don’t get any more cult than Wintersun‘s Time I. Fans of the Finnish band hold it to an impossibly high standard, doting over the 2012 album like a mother would her own child. They’re right though… Time I is a phenomenal piece of melodic death / prog metal, and it set up a feverish buzz for a sequel. More than a decade later, Time II will finally be released on August 30, 2024. Let’s just hope it’s more Metropolis Pt. 2 than Welcome 2 My Nightmare.

Guys, it’s been 20 years since Necrophagist released an album. Onset of Putrefaction and Epitaph are peak tech death records, and the sudden disappearance of Summer Slaughter’s former headliners left fans with a deep lack of closure. Frontman Muhammed Suicmez apparently works as an engineer for BMW now — a much cushier job than living on a tour bus and inhaling your bandmates’ farts for months at a time. We’ll probably never get that third Necrophagist album… but we can dream.

Will they? Won’t they? The discourse on Slipknot‘s experimental unreleased album, Look Outside Your Window, has left fans with more questions than answers. It supposedly doesn’t sound anything like Slipknot, actually being compared to bands like Radiohead. Hardcore fans have been demanding the album for years, even though the artsier Slipknot songs often feel like filler among the band’s vicious, primal bangers. Still, the unreleased creation from Corey Taylor, Shawn ‘Clown Crahan, Sid Wilson and Jim Root has captured the imagination of maggots everywhere. Maybe in 2024?

“Shelved” — it’s the term musicians fear most following the painstaking process of writing and recording a new album. For a myriad of reasons, record labels can choose not to release an album, essentially throwing it into the abyss until the artist or another company buys out the rights. This happened with Duff McKagan‘s 1999 solo album, Beautiful Disease. For 25 years, the album has remained unreleased, but the Guns N’ Roses bassist recently acquired the rights to Beautiful Disease, so it could conceivably see the light of day.

Tragedy struck the Deftones camp in 2008 when bassist Chi Cheng was seriously injured in a car accident. Cheng was left in a coma, interrupting the recording of Eros and ultimately leaving the album unfinished. Eros has remained a lost album, with just one song from the Eros sessions, “Smile”, being released on the first anniversary of Cheng‘s death. Deftones have discussed potentially releasing the completed tracks as an EP, but don’t expect the band to revisit those dark days anytime soon.

Is it fair to say Korn‘s history with cover songs has been extremely hit or miss? The nü-metal legends’ version of Pink Floyd‘s “Another Brick in the Wall” is awesome, but Radiohead‘s “Creep”? Not their best. Regardless, the band’s unreleased Korn Kovers album NEEDS to come out. Among the lost covers include Mötley Crüe‘s “Shout at the Devil”, a potential version of Morbid Angel‘s “God of Emptiness” and the Korn Kovers holy grail — Nine Inch Nails‘ “Head Like a Hole” featuring Chester Bennington. How could you keep this from us?!?

Guns N’ Roses once spent a decade making a new album that sucked ass, but at least they released the damn thing. In the case of X Japan, they spent 2008-2018 in the studio and have used the subsequent years to mix and master and remix and remaster the finished album. Who’s in a rush anyway? The last X Japan album only came out the same year as Tool‘s Ænima.

Is there anyone more legendarily indecisive than Kim Bendix Petersen? The falsetto icon known better as King Diamond is currently working on new albums for both Mercyful Fate and his solo band, which would be great news if we hadn’t been waiting since 1999 and 2007, respectively. The wait especially sucks because both albums are likely to kick ass — the King‘s voice remains in pristine condition, Andy LaRocque is still in King Diamond, Hank Shermann is still in Mercyful Fate… these blue balls are unbearable.

Metallica, Flotsam and Jetsam, Voivod, his solo project… Jason Newsted has put out some great stuff over the decades. The bass legend is apparently working on a new metal album, a decade after his latest foray into the genre with the solo release Heavy Metal Music. There’s nothing like Newsted crushing the E string of his bass. We need more!

Please, please, please, please release the unheard Lemmy album. For many years prior to his death, the Motörhead icon recorded solo tracks with artists like Dave Grohl, Joan Jett, the Damned and the Reverend Horton Heat. Lemmy once described the album, False Teeth for the Deaf, as “either very inconsistent or very eclectic.” We’d LOVE to decide for ourselves. What a gift this album would be.