These awesome bands went decades without releasing an album, only to shock longtime fans with a new full-length! Check out the 10 Rock + Metal Bands With the Longest Gaps Between Albums.

Anxiously waiting Tool’s next album, which has been a decade in the making? That’s nothing compared to what fans went through with these 10 acts. The shortest gap in this list is 24 years — belonging to The Who’s drought between It’s Hard and Endless Wire.

The New Wave of British Heavy Metal proved to be a subgenre able to strongly withstand the test of time. Bands like Angel Witch and Satan continued to accumulate new fans for decades after they stopped making records. This dedicated audience allowed for Angel Witch and Satan to both record new albums - As Above, So Below and Life Sentence - after 26-year absences.

The longest gap in this Loud List makes any of the aforementioned ones seem short in comparison. In 1974, occult rock / heavy metal act Coven unleashed a brilliant record with Blood on the Snow. They remained quiet for a total of 39 years before roaring back with Jinx in 2013. Let’s just hope Tool fans won’t have to suffer through another three decades of nothingness before a new record hits.

Take a walk through rock and metal’s craziest droughts with these Longest Gaps Between Albums!

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