Metal By Numbers 9/21: The charts are a harsh, cold world

ofmiceandmen

Metal By Numbers is a weekly column in which we look at the top metal sellers and debuts of the week.

I’ve been writing this column for four years now, and while that might not sound like a super long time, it’s interesting to see how things have changed regarding record sales. Sure, there are obvious variables that have been in places for a long time now (digital music, musical piracy), but even in the relatively short span of four years there have been changes such as the rise music streaming, which is now accounted for in album sales. And now that I’ve been doing this long enough to see bands move through two or three album cycles, it’s intriguing to see sales patterns shift for bands old a new. Of Mice & Men, for example, is our top debut this week for metal, but they’re in a very different position from their last album. The #13 spot is nothing to shack a stick at and 14,000 copies sold is a number most bands would be celebrating with backflips. But compared to the #4 and 51,000 copies their previous album did in 2014? Big difference, and that was only a few months shy of three years ago. Now, you could pin it on the band’s overall popularity which is sometimes a valid reason for a drop in sales, but there a plenty of other big bands that land a spot in the top five but sell way less than their previous album did, and vice versa. Conversely, there other bands that are inching up one album at a time, and you can see one or two in our debuts below. P.S. Metallica’s Black Album sold another 4,700 this week.

Notable Debuts:

Of Mice & Men, Cold World (Rise)
Debut #13
14,175 sold

Of Mice & Men land a solid debut with their fourth album, though it didn’t have nearly as big of a debut as their previous album.

Norma Jean, Polar Similar (Solid State)
Debut #29
7,800 sold

The band’s seventh album charts higher than its predecessor.

Devin Townsend Project, Transcendence (InsideOut)
Debut #38
5,500 sold

HevyDevy is back with his seventh album under the DTP moniker, outdoing his previous album and making this one his best US debut yet.

Artifex Pereo, Passengers(Tooth & Nail)
Debut #119
1,750 sold

This is the second album from this Louisville post-hardcore act.

Rev Theory, The Revelation (Another Century)
Debut #135
1,500 sold

The band’s fourth studio album is their first in five years.

Evergrey, The Storm Within (AFM)
Debut #167
1,150 sold

The band’s tenth album is their highest charting yet in the US.

Breakdown of Sanity, Coexistence (Self-Released)
1,025 sold

This is the fourth album from this unsigned Switzerland band.

Letters From The Fire, Worth the Pain (Sand Hill)
960 sold

This is the band’s debut album. Also, they covered “Eleanor Rigby”.

Steve ‘N’ Seagulls, Brothers In Farms (Spinefarm)
400 sold

Who knew that hillbillies could come from Finland? The band’s sophomore album, which finds the metal/bluegrass band taking on a pair of Guns N’ Roses songs, as well as Foo Fighters, Deep Purple and many more, has a solid debut.

Cruel Hand, Your World Won’t Listen (Hopeless)
370 sold