The reviews are in, and Clutch’s Psychic Warfare is an album that stands proudly alongside Earth Rocker, Blast Tyrant and their sophomore, self-titled album. It turns out fans think so as well, since the band’s eleventh studio album marked their biggest chart debut yet, landing at #11 on Billboard‘s charts. What’s more impressive is that while many bands are reaching their peak chart positions at the expense of sales, the 26,000 copies of the album the band sold is more than 2013’s Earth Rocker, which sold 22,000 and significantly more than the 13,000 that Strange Cousins From the West sold.
While many bands are selling less copies of their albums due to the increase of streaming, Clutch might be selling more albums because of their stance on it. Psychic Warfare isn’t available on Spotify yet, and if memory serves, Earth Rocker wasn’t initially available on the streaming service either, although it is now. It also doesn’t hurt that the band got spun on Apple’s worldwide Beats 1 radio station, with them spinning “Psychic Warfare” in between Janet Jackson and Drake, on the album’s release date. But Clutch seem to be continuing to pick up new fans over 20 years into their recording career, which is an impressive feat. Stay tuned for the rest of the chart action on Metal by Numbers coming up later today or early tomorrow.
