Neilstein Soundscam: Goodbye to 2012

With the coming holiday season and the corresponding yearly lull in the new release schedule, this will be the last Neilstein Soundscam of 2012. It will also be the last Neilstein Soundscam ever, in its current form.

Using album sales figures as the sole metric for ranking bands is becoming increasingly outdated; although it’s certainly still one useful measuring stick for gauging a band’s success, it’s just that: only one, in a world that now has many. Starting in 2013, Neilstein Soundscam will switch to a completely new ranking system that takes into account not only album sales, but tour figures, social networking numbers, critical acclaim, general buzz, and, most importantly, my own subjectivity. It’ll be a shitshow for sure, but at least it’ll be a fun one.

With that said, here are some sales numbers for this week. This week’s Top 5 are a perfect example of why touting sales figures is no longer relevant:

1 LED ZEPPELIN – CELEBRATION DAY
Last week: 102,115 (debut)

2 AEROSMITH – MUSIC FROM ANOTHER DIMENSION
Last week: 29,347
Cume: 116,166

3 TRANS-SIBERIAN ORCHESTRA – DREAMS OF FIREFLIES…
Last week: 26,966
Cume: 92,650

4 SOUNDGARDEN – KING ANIMAL
last week: 19,908
Cume: 103,290

5 AC/DC LIVE AT RIVER PLATE
Last week: 16,832 (debut)

Get the point? Sales numbers are an old man’s game because only old people buy records en masse (records that are made by other old people, of course). If you really want to know where the pulse is at, where the future lies, certainly don’t look here.

6 DEFTONES – KOI NO YOKAN
Last week: 14,469
Cume: 79,505

Deftones are bordering on “old man” territory themselves, but they still seem way more vital than any of the above.

16 MOTIONLESS IN WHITE – INFAMOUS
Last week: 5,255
Cume: 15,936

17 ALL THAT REMAINS – WAR YOU CANNOT WIN
Last week: 4,621
Cume: 36,920

Each of the above two records has been on the charts for three weeks, but while All That Remains have sold way more units overall Motionless in White sold more in Week 3. Very interesting! Not sure what that means, just an observation.

25 METALOCALYPSE: DETHKLOK – DETHALBUM III
Last week: 2,854
Cume: 42,352

36 PARKWAY DRIVE – ATLAS
Last week: 1,907
Cume: 21,015

44 BETWEEN THE BURIED & ME – PARALLAX II: FUTURE SEQUENCE
Last week: 1,283
Cume: 29,218

Those are all some really healthy numbers.

51 KAMELOT – SILVERTHORN
Last week: 1,005
Cume: 9,761

Whoa, like… really?

60 CRADLE OF FILTH – MANTICORE & OTHER HORRORS
Last week: 857
Cume: 8,278

I don’t have access to any of Cradle of Filth’s Roadrunner-era numbers, but man, this feels like a rough beat.

71 ACACIA STRAIN – DEATH IS THE ONLY MORTAL
Last week: 606
Cume: 14,388

86 GRAVEYARD – LIGHTS OUT
Last week: 490
Cume: 3,431

89 CONVERGE – ALL WE LOVE WE LEAVE BEHIND
Last week: 488
Cume: 12,039

91 SUICIDE SILENCE – BLACK CROWN
Last week: 479
Cume: 64,415

An 11% sales bump over the week prior, unfortunately due to Mitch Lucker’s death. Bittersweet news, at best.

92 PIG DESTROYER – BOOK BURNER
Last week: 473
Cume: 7,511

100 WINTERSUN – TIME I
Last week: 427
Cume: 6,714

And, that’s all folks… see you next year.