Metal By Numbers is a weekly column in which we look at the top metal sellers and debuts 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 that have metal shows, as well as SiriusXM, Music Choice, and more.

We’re pretty psyched by the debut of Baroness’ sophomore full length, The Blue Record. The 4,700 they sold was the highest metal debut of the week. Not far below, Skeletonwitch also has a nice start as well. The big winner is the New Moon soundtrack. The music from your little sister’s favorite movie franchise sold 115,000 copies in only three days to debut at #2. Look for it to have an even bigger week after a full week of sales. Dethklok is #1 at metal radio, and in a very slow add week due to the CMJ convention, City of Fire is most added.

Notable Debuts:

Baroness, Blue Record (Relapse) #117, 4,700 sold
The buzz and hype aside, this is a really solid album, and it’s a nice debut for a band that’s earned it.

Skeletonwitch, Breathing the Fire (Prosthetic) #151, 3,500 sold
This is Ohio’s proudest moment since, um… a little help here? Nice debut for the band’s second full length.

Marduk, Wormwood (Regain) 650 sold
Who knew that the lovable great dane had a band? Oh wait…

Notable Sales:

KISS, Sonic Boom (KISS Records) #11, 30,000 sold
A big 72% decrease from last week, but 30k records is 30k records.

Breaking Benjamin, Dear Agony (Hollywood Records) #13 26,000 sold
This is probably the only band that’s sold 200,000 copies in three weeks that you wouldn’t recognize if they were standing right next to you.
Alice In Chains, Black Gives Way To Blue (Virgin) #17 23,000 sold
This album is way better than a resurrected band with a new singer should be. 

Dethklok, Dethalbum II (Williams Street) #49 10,900 sold
Up to 72,000 sold. Not bad, Brendon and Gene, not bad…

Five Finger Death Punch, War Is The Answer (Prospect Park) #57 9,500 sold
What’s war the answer to, guys? What’s with the war and the punching and stuff?

Rodrigo y Gabriela, 11:11 (ATO) #111, 4,900 sold
These guys are amazing acoustic, but after seeing Rob Trujillo jam with them, they need to put out a full-on metal album!

Megadeth, Endgame (Roadrunner) #142, 4,000 sold
This has sold about 75,000 so far. It’s their best record since they routinely went gold, so anyone of the other 425,000 people that are reading this and haven’t bought this yet, get on it!’

Blessthefall, Witness (Fearless Records) #145 3,900 sold
Did thefall sneeze or something? Sorry, out of funny comments.

Hatebreed, Hatebreed (E1 Records) #154 3,300 sold
24,000 copies sold in three weeks is ok, but not spectacular.

Steel Panther, Feel the Steel (Republic) #166, 3,000 sold
This might be one of the few bands whose in between song banter is funnier than their already funny songs. If you like Spinal Tap, you’ll love Steel Panther.

Chickenfoot, Chickenfoot (Redline/Fontana) #167, 3,000 sold
This sold slightly more than last week. This could be their sweet spot

Austrian Death Machine, Double Brutal (Metal Blade) 1,800 sold

Despised Icon, Day of Mourning (Century Media) 1,100 sold

Immortal, All Shall Fall (Nuclear Blast) 1,100 sold

Anvil, This is Thirteen (VH1 Classic) 1,000 sold

Skindred, Shark Bites and Dog Fights (Beiler Bros Records) 825 sold

There’s other bullshit at the bottom of the charts, but Metal Insider has to run off to CMJ, so if you don’t see a band here, you probably should have bought it so I would have written about it earlier in this article.
FMQB Top Ten Albums

1. Dethklok Dethalbum II (Williams Street)
2. Megadeth, Endgame (Roadrunner)
3. Shadows Fall Retribution (Everblack Industries/Ferret)
4. Hatebreed, Hatebreed (E1)
5. Kittie, In The Black (Koch Records)
6. Slayer, “World Painted Blood” (Columbia/American)
7. Arch Enemy, Root of All Evil (Century Media)
8. Black Dahlia Murder, Deflorate (Metal Blade)
9. Every Time I Die, New Junk Aesthetic (Vagrant)
10. GWAR, Lust In Space (Metal Blade)