Metal By Numbers is a weekly coluimn in which we look at the top sellers of the week as well as what’s getting played at Metal Radio courtesy of radio trade magazine FMQB, whose metal panel consists of about 80 college and commercial stations, as well as SiriusXM, Music Choice, and more.
Well, now that the recession is in full swing and the holidays are a memory, everybody’s cutting back on spending. Nowhere is that more obvious than looking at sales charts for this week. Only one album sold more than 53,000 copies, and the #10 album in the country only sold 27,000 copies. It’s also a slow week for debuts, As far as FMQB is concerned, look for a shakeup in the top ten next week as last year’s music slips down and new music takes hold.
Notable Debuts:
High on Fire, Live From the Relaspe Contamination Festival (Relapse) 886 copies sold
When the top metal debut sells under 1,000 copies, it’s a slow week. Awesome for High On Fire, though!
Notable Sales:
Metallica, Death Magnetic (Warner Bros.) #36, 13,000 copies sold
If this album sold what it did last week (21,000), it would have been the #14 album in the country.
AC/DC, Black Ice (Columbia) #37, 12,500 copies sold
#37 for a second week in a row. The big rock releases are selling around the same numbers every week.
Guns N’ Roses, Chinese Democracy (Geffen), #40, 11,500 copies sold
See?
Hollywood Undead, Swan Songs (Octone), #48, 10,600 copies sold
These ICP-meets-Slipknot, Ozzy-sampling masked dudes might not be metal, per se, but their album’s quietly creeping towards the 200,000 sold mark.
Slipknot, All Hope is Gone (Roadrunner), #75, 7.000 copies sold.
Another week, another 7,000 sold.
Mudvayne, The New Game (Epic) #102, 5,100 copies sold
Another consistently selling album from the ‘Vayne.
Avenged Sevenfold, Avenged Sevenfold (Warner Bros) #120, 4,100 copies sold
Between these guys and Five Finger Death Punch, two 2007 albums that keep selling.
Five Finger Death Punch, The Way of the Fist (The Firm) #157, 3,300 copies sold
Amirite?
Bring Me The Horizon, Suicide Season (Epitaph) 1,250 copies sold
This pushes them to up over 30,000 copies sold, and all this before the Taste of Chaos tour.
Gojira, The Way of All Flesh (Prosthetic) 550 copies sold
Seriously, everyone should buy this album.
Austrian Death Machine, Total Brutal (Metal Blade) 500 copies sold
Wonder if their Christmas EP helped sell their debut.
The Sword, Gods of the Earth (Kemado) 492 copies sold
Hopefully, Metallica fans are stopping the tailgate party in time to check these guys out.
The Faceless, Planetary Duality (Victory) 487 copies sold
The buzz over this record is translating into sales.
Whitechapel, This is Exile (Metal Blade) 450 copies sold
Don’t look now, but Whotechapel sold more copies than Frank Caliendo this week!
Bring Me The Horizon, Count Your Blessings (Earache) 400 copies sold
Their debut album and Suicide Season have sold just about the same amount.
FMQB Most Added
1. Kreator, Hordes of Chaos (SPV)
2. Woe of Tyrants, Kingdom of Might (Metal Blade)
3. Destroy Destroy Destroy, Battle Sluts (Black Market Activities/Metal Blade)
4. 16, Bridges To Burn (Relapse)
5. Misery, 15 Years of Misery (Cactus)
FMQB Top Ten Albums
1. Gojira, The Way of All Flesh (Prosthetic)
2. Mudvayne, The New Game (Epic)
3. Cradle of Filth, Godspeed On the Devil’s Thunder (Roadrunner)
4. Haunted, Versus (Century Media)
5. Cynic, Traced In Air (Season of Mist)
6. Six Feet Under, Death Rituals (Metal Blade)
7. In Flames, “The Mirror’s Truth” EP (Koch)
8. Exodus, Let There Be Blood (Zaentz)
9. All That Remains, Overcome (Prosthetic/Razor & Tie)
10. Unearth, The March (Metal Blade)
