Metal By Numbers is a weekly column in which we look at the top metal sellers and debuts of the week.
If you’re at all familiar with Metallica, then you know that The Black Album is one of the best-selling albums of all time. What you might not have known is that for the past couple weeks, The Black Album has been selling really well. I’m talking around 5,000 to 6,000 copies a week kind of well. It’s #63 on the Billboard 200 and was sitting in the top 50 not too long ago. While this all might seem like just a drop in the bucket for an album that has sold over 16 million copies in the US, when you think about how an album (not a greatest hits mind you, an original LP) from 1991 is selling like this today, you can understand why it’s so noteworthy. For the record, Master of Puppets sold 4,300 this week, …And Justice for All about 4,000 and Ride the Lightning about 2,700.
Notable Debuts:
Holy Grail, Times of Pride & Peril (Prothetic) 1,400 sold
Holy Grail’s third album has a debut on par with their previous album.
Rotting Christ, Rituals (Season of Mist) 1,100 sold
The band’s latest manages to top their previous record’s debut.
Magrudergrind, II (Relapse) 850 sold
The latest from the grindcore trio is their first release on Relapse.
Myrath, Legacy (Nightmare) 590 sold
This Tunisian prog band release their fourth album.
Lost Society, Braindead (Nuclear Blast) 350 sold
This is the Finnish band’s third LP.
Notable Sales:
Disturbed, Immortalized (Reprise) #44, 7,100 sold
A small 5% boost.
Five Finger Death Punch, Got Your Six (Prospect Park) #70, 4,550 sold
Got your 19% boost.
Dream Theater, The Astonishing (Roadrunner) #92, 3,200 sold
A 41% drop is astonishing, but not in a good way.
Shinedown, Threat To Survival (Atlantic) #95, 3,150 sold
This holds the same position as last week.
Red, Of Beauty and Rage (Essential) #144, 2,050 sold
Over 100,000 copies sold.
Breaking Benjamin, Dark Before Dawn (Hollywood) #153, 1,975 sold
This sold nearly the same as last week.
Hollywood Vampires, Hollywood Vampires (UMe) #163, 1,950 sold
The band’s debut album rockets back up following their tribute to Lemmy at the Grammys.
Bring Me The Horizon, That’s The Spirit (Columbia) #177, 1,775 sold
If you’re wonder what standing on Coldplay table at the Grammys nets you, apparently it’s a 14% boost.
Ghost, Meliora (Loma Vista) #186, 1,675 sold
This gets boosted back onto the charts following Ghost’s Grammy win. They’ve sold 71,000 so far.
Fleshgod Apocalypse, King (Nuclear Blast) 900 sold
A 62% second week drop.
Obscura, Akróasis (Relapse) 750 sold
A 59% drop in week two.
Abbath, Abbath (Season of Mist) 560 sold
A drop of 15%.
Prong, X – No Absolutes (SPV/Steamhammer) 530 sold
A 63% second week drop.
Ice Nine Kills, Every Trick In The Book (Fearless) 440 sold
A 51% drop is not n(ice).
Avantasia, Ghostlights (Nuclear Blast) 420 sold
A 38% drop is ghostly.
Red Sun Rising, Polyester Zeal (Razor & Tie) 320 sold
A slight drop of 8%.
Wage War, Blueprints (Fearless) 310 sold
A boost of 16%.
Primal Fear, Rulebreaker (Frontiers) 300 sold
A 30% drop is fearful.
Exmortus, Ride Forth (Prosthetic) 260 sold
Riding on a 24%.
Witchcraft, Nucleus (Nuclear Blast) 250 sold
A 29% drop, witch isn’t good.
Black Tusk, Pillars of Ash (Relapse) 240 sold
A 54% drop is, as Sean Connery would say, “a pain in the ash.”
Borknagar, Winter Thrice (Century Media) 210 sold
A 20% drop is cold.
