Neilstein Soundscam: Disarm the Ascent

As a reminder, you can get a more complete picture of sales figures at Metal Insider this week and every week.

Here are this week’s Neilstein Power Rankings.

1. ↑ Killswitch Engage / Peak: 1 / Last Week: 8 / Weeks On: 3

Albums sold: 48,450 (Disarm the Descent)
Facebook: 2032246 likes · 73206 talking about this (3.6%)
YouTube: 712,000 (“In Due Time” official video)

First thing’s first, congrats on that first week. HUGE! The fact that any metal band can sell nearly 50,000 records first week in this day and age is astounding. But the lack of Facebook activity for this band is concerning, and it’s been consistent throughout the entire run-up to this album’s release; KsE experienced a rise in FB activity from last week but they’re still only at 3.5% active (~10% is considered good). I wonder if their overall number of Likes is inflated due to past shenanigans or promotions (i.e. “Like to sign up for a contest / stream a song / win tickets,” etc), or if for some reason a portion of the band’s fanbase has tuned out. The latter would certainly be hard to argue with a 50k first week!

2.  ↔ Ghost / Peak: 2 / Last Week: 2 / Weeks On: 5

Albums sold: 0 (Infestissumam, April 16)
Facebook: 101,960 likes · 6,058 talking about this (5.9%)
YouTube: 596,000 (“Secular Haze” official video); 57,000 (“Year Zero,” official video [censored version])

Both the “Secular Haze” and “Year Zero” videos continued to amass views despite being out for weeks (and in the case of the former, months). Pitchfork is streaming the entire record right now, and though we don’t have stats on that, anecdotal evidence ftw: every time we post about Ghost traffic goes through the roof. This band is scorching hot right now, like a batter who’s absolutely locked in at the plate getting on base seemingly every time he comes to bat.

3. ↔ Sevendust / Peak: 3 / Last Week: 3 / Weeks On: 3

Albums sold: 6,575 (Black Out the Sun, week two)
Facebook: 530722 likes · 13261 talking about this (2.5%)
YouTube: 67,000 (“Decay” official video)

That’s a 76% sales drop in week two, but cumulative sales are now at about 34,000, a solid number to be sure. 20k new YouTube views. Only 2.5% talking about this, though, down from 6.6%, so the buzz is definitely fading. But look out for them on tour right now.

4.  ↓ Clutch / Peak: 1 / Last Week: 1 / Weeks On: 6

Albums sold: 3,825 (Earth Rocker, third week)
Facebook: 196,171 likes · 8,873 talking about this (4.5%)
YouTube: 114,000 (“Earth Rocker” lyric video)

Social activity feel from 7.8% to 4.5% and the video accumulated only 7k new views, indicating Clutch’s joy-ride is finally winding down.

5.  ↑ The Ocean / Peak: 5 / Last Week: 6 / Weeks On: 3

Albums sold: 0 (Pelagial, out April 30)
Facebook: 25,334 likes · 2,174 talking about this (8.6%)
YouTube: 28,000 (“Bathyalpelagic II” official premiere)

The Ocean gained 1.5k new Facebook followers since last week, no small feat, and though the percentage talking about them on FB dropped slightly 8.6% is still a strong number. They released a full album stream of the instrumental version of Pelagial this week and the album’s been getting rave reviews all around.

6. ↓ Kvelertak / Peak: 3 / Last Week: 4 / Weeks On: 10

Albums sold: 725 sold (Meir, week two)
Facebook: 65,410 likes · 3,674 talking about this (5.6%)
YouTube: 79,000 (“Manelyst” official video)

Is it too early to call this album a flop? At least from the big-money major record label standpoint. Of course the fans don’t give a shit about any of this; let’s just rock and have a good time.

7. Kylesa / Peak: 7 / Last Week: n/a / Weeks On: 1

Albums sold: 0 (Ultraviolet, May 28)
Facebook: 43,696 likes · 1,004 talking about this (2.2%)
YouTube: 16,000 (“Unspoken” official premiere)

I may not like this band but it’s hard to ignore the fact that so many other people whose opinions I respect do. Including our own Sammy O’Hagar, who gave Ultraviolet a four out of five horns review. That’s a really weak Facebook activity percentage, though; maybe their fans aren’t the type who are into social networks.

8. ↑ Shining / Peak: 8 / Last Week: 9 / Weeks On: 2

Albums sold: 0 (One One One, out April 23)
Facebook: 12,514 likes · 861 talking about this (6.9%)
YouTube: 16,000 (“I Won’t Forget” official video)

The album is out now, although Prosthetic will make it officially available in the U.S. in a few weeks, in which time Shining fans the world over will pirate this record because there’s no other option (the idea staggered international release dates is so out-dated). So while the buzz is good, songs are streaming and the official video is out… no sales :(

9. Anciients / Peak: 9 / Last Week: n/a / Weeks On: 1

Albums sold: no data (Heart of Oak, out now)
Facebook: 2,871 likes · 302 talking about this (10.5%)
YouTube: nothing

So obviously all of those numbers are incredibly weak (or nonexistent). But the buzz on this band right now is great; everyone seems to like them a whole lot. And with an opening slot for Death To All, I’m sure they’ll see their visibility increase. Stream Heart of Oak here.

10. Hypocrisy / Peak: 10 / Last Week: n/a / Weeks On: 1

Albums sold: 1,900 (End of Disclosure, debut)
Facebook: 292,515 likes · 11,625 talking about this (3.9%)
YouTube: 146,000 (“End of Diclosure” official video)

That’s a decent first week, an OK Facebook percentage and a pretty impressive YouTube number… but I’m just not feeling the heat on these guys for whatever reason. I think their existing fans are into this record but the band isn’t really gaining new ones.