NEILSTEIN SOUNDSCAM: LAMB OF GOD REIGN SUPREME
We’re back! January 24th marked the first big release date of 2012, and now the numbers are in for the final first-week tallies. As expected, Lamb of God took the top spot in the Current Hard Music Chart (and #3 overall behind Adele [115,972] and Tim McGraw [67,530]), while Lacuna Coil landed at #2. New records by Blessed by a Broken Heart, Aborted, Primal Fear and Abigail Williams also ended up in the Top 100. Check out the numbers after the break.
1 LAMB OF GOD – RESOLUTION
Last week: 52,844 (debut)
Another stellar debut for Lamb of God! By comparison, their last album Wrath sold around 67,000 units first week, but these are different times and 53k is still an incredible number for ANY band, let alone a brutal (by normal peoples’ standards) metal band.
2 LACUNA COIL – DARK ADRENALINE
Last week: 19,977 (debut)
Their highest chart debut by rank ever. Congrats! Another solid album.
7 SCORPIONS – COMEBLACK
Last week: 5,089 (debut)
Scorpions have a new album? Oh wait, no, it’s just re-recorded classics and covers. Pass.
11 FOXY SHAZAM – CHURCH OF ROCK & ROLL
Last week: 4,069
When I worked at Atlantic Records some guy who worked at Warner Brothers or some other affiliate label (they’re all in the same building) tried telling me in the elevator ride upstairs one morning that this new band Foxy Shazam was the shit, “the next big thing” (if I had a penny every time someone said “next big thing” while I worked at Atlantic…). Then I got upstairs and listened to them. Uh, no thanks.
12 HALESTORM – HELLO IT’S MZ. HYDE – EP
Last week: 3,369
Axl doesn’t like these guys but I can back them. Even though I think their label tries to gloss the shit out of their music way too much, they’re righteous in a live setting — girl’s got PIPES. Anyway, I haven’t heard this album yet but I’m glad to see the band’s career is building.
13 NIGHTWISH – IMAGINAERUM
Last week: 3,265
Cume: 20,383
Serious question #notroll: what percentage of Nightwish’s fans are female?
21 ROYAL BLISS – WAITING OUT THE STORM
Last week: 1,672 (debut)
26 ENTER SHIKARI – FLASH FLOOD OF COLOUR
Last week: 1,378
Cume: 7,553
More like Enter Suckari, amirite??
34 BLESSED BY A BROKEN HEART – FEEL THE POWER
Last week: 1,136 (debut)
Our own Anso DF recently ran an interview with frontman Tony Gambino in which he revealed some ridiculous tough-guy shenanigans that Century Media label-head Oliver Withölft pulled on the band when they were still on CM, some Tony Victory-level thug shit. I’m not sure how this record stacks up against the band’s past releases, but new label Razor & Tie should be able to do a lot better for this band than Century Media ever did.
39 ABORTED – GLOBAL FLATLINE
Last week: 1,024 (debut)
DEATH METAL ftw.
58 PRIMAL FEAR – UNBREAKABLE
Last week: 693
Score one for power! Stream the whole record on MetalSucks here.
62 WILLIAMS*ABIGAIL BECOMING
Last week: 636 (debut)
LOL @ Soundscan’s treatment of “Abigail Williams” as a person’s name by switching the order of the first and surnames.
96 RED FANG – MURDER THE MOUNTAINS
Last week: 365
Cume: 14,500
Murder the Mountains is obviously not a new album, so I wonder why it suddenly experienced a 115% week-to-week sales spike and jumped back into the Top 100? The real news, though, is that this album is about to cross the 15,000 unit threshold — wow! Good for these guys.
-VN
