NEILSTEIN SOUNDSCAM: THE RIZE OF JACK BLACK

There weren’t a whole lot of metal debuts last week, but the few new records that did come out all landed with a splash. After the jump, sales numbers from Tenacious D, Godsmack, Hot Water Music and Shadows Fall. As always, the rankings are from the “Current Hard Music” chart.

1 TENACIOUS D – RIZE OF THE FENIX
Last week: 44,499 (debut)

Holy crap! I thought these guys were left for dead. Then again, anything connected with TV / movies / celebrities in any way is always gonna do well. I haven’t listened to this record yet, though; is it any good?

2 GODSMACK – LIVE & INSPIRED
Last week: 16,628 (debut)

Nifty site skins on MetalSucks sell records! 

3 HOT WATER MUSIC – EXISTER
Last week: 10,474 (debut)

Really good album. Stoked to see these guys doing well.

4 SHADOWS FALL – FIRE FROM THE SKY
Last week: 10,211 (debut)

Their last album, Retribution, debuted with around 13k units sold back in 2009. Adjusting for overall record sales declines, the economy, and the fact that the kind of metal Shadows Fall play isn’t really “in” right now, I’d say 10k is really good and pretty much equal with their last record’s debut.

5 PANTERA – VULGAR DISPLAY OF POWER
Last week: 9,069
Cume: 2,176,603

9k “First Week” for a re-issue is pretty good, I suppose. 

26 STORM CORROSION – STORM CORROSION
Last week: 1,451
Cume: 10,937

This is an 85% drop in Week 2, which I find really interesting. Week 1 far outpaced any expectations I had, so I’m not surprised about the big Week 2 drop. 

-VN