Neilstein Soundscam: Protest are the Heroes
Lots of chart movement this week, with more expected next week on the heels of a bunch of big releases!
More detailed sales numbers are available at Metal Insider this week and every week.
1. ↑ Protest the Hero / Peak: 1 / Last Week: 2 / Weeks On: 5
Albums sold last week: 0 (Volition, October 29)
Facebook Fan Engagement: 5.1% (298,081 likes · 15,140 talking about this)
YouTube: 190,000 (“Drumhead Trial” official audio)
Protest the Hero doubled their FB fan engagement percentage since last week, and, as such, the top spot is theirs. The buzz around this band right now is crazy — notwithstanding a few token haters in the MS comments, nearly everyone likes this band and is very excited about the new album. Stream it in full here.
2. ↑ Rivers of Nihil / Peak: 2 / Last Week: 4 / Weeks On: 3
Albums sold last week: 1,050 (The Conscious Seed of Light, debut)
Facebook Fan Engagement: 18.0% (8,437 likes · 1,519 talking about this)
YouTube: 40,000 (“Rain Eater” official stream)
Whoa that first week number, crazy for a new band as heavy as these guys! It’s deserved — album absolutely rips (stream it in full here). Expect big things in the future from these guys.
3. ↔ Red Fang / Peak: 3 / Last Week: 8 / Weeks On: 3
Albums sold last week: 5,850 (Whales and Leeches, debut)
Facebook Fan Engagement: 6.9% (127,930 likes · 8,841 talking about this)
YouTube: 72,000 (“Blood Like Cream” official track)
Sorry, Red Fang… Protest the Hero beat you out in the buzz department despite a very, very solid first week number. There were 450 additional albums that somehow sold before the release week, however that happened, but this is still a killer debut for Red Fang.
4. ↑ Death Angel / Peak: 4 / Last Week: 8 / Weeks On: 2
Albums sold last week: 5,275 (The Dream Calls For Blood, debut)
Facebook Fan Engagement: 3.8% (230,291 likes · 8,709 talking about this)
YouTube: 32,000 (“The Dream Calls For Blood” official lyric video)
Facebook fan engagement percentage for some reason got chopped more than in half since last week. But that’s a great first week sales number, and critics and fans alike seem to be loving the album. The tour with Revocation, 3 Inches of Blood, Battlecross and Diamond Plate is underway so I’m surprised to see that FB number dip.
5. ♦ Trivium / Peak: 5 / Last Week: n/a / Weeks On: 1
Albums sold last week: 17,255 (Vengeance Falls, debut)
Facebook Fan Engagement: 2.0% (1,679,716 likes · 34,262 talking about this)
YouTube: 670,000 (“Strife” official video)
Those are all very respectable numbers (2.0% isn’t a great FB fan engagement number, but for a band with nearly 1.7 overall “likes” it’s solid), but I’m just not feeling the buzz on this record.
6. ↓ Carcass / Peak: 1 / Last Week: 1 / Weeks On: 8
Albums sold last week: [no data] (Surgical Steel, week five)
Facebook Fan Engagement: 2.1% (304,798 likes · 6,301 talking about this)
YouTube: 403,000 (“Captive Bolt Pistol” official premiere)
Well, their reign atop the chart had to end sometime — with a much diminished Facebook fan engagement percentage and YouTube views relatively stagnant, the magic carpet ride finally comes to an end for Carcass. For now. I expect a whole lot of buzz when they come back to North America for a full, proper tour, whenever that is.
7. ♦ Skeletonwitch / Peak: 7 / Last Week: n/a / Weeks On: 1
Albums sold last week: 0 (Serpents Unleashed, October 29)
Facebook Fan Engagement: 8.5% (52,112 likes · 4,411 talking about this)
YouTube: 43,000 (“I Am of Death (Hell Has Arrived)” music video)
Truthfully this band should’ve been on this chart prior to this week; oversight on my part. Tons of hype for the new album, big online media presence, killing it on tour with The Black Dahlia Murder… wins all around. Stream the new record in full here and read our official review here.
8. ↓ Dream Theater / Peak: 2 / Last Week: 5 / Weeks On: 5
Albums sold last week: 2,950 (Dream Theater, week three)
Facebook Fan Engagement: 1.2% (3,345,378 likes · 39,621 talking about this)
YouTube: 782,000 (“The Enemy Inside” lyric video)
Band sells like clockwork. It’s a well-oiled machine.
9. ↓ Metallica / Peak: 3 / Last Week: 7 / Weeks On: 5
Albums sold last week: 4,875 (Through the Never Soundtrack, week three)
Facebook Fan Engagement: 1.5% (33,036,097 likes · 508,099 talking about this)
YouTube: 2.9 million (Through the Never official theatrical trailer)
The movie might not be doing well but the soundtrack is still selling, and the band got a nice PR bump from the announcement of the Antarctica concert.
10. ♦ Whores / Peak: 10 / Last Week: n/a / Weeks On: 1
Albums sold last week: 0 (Clean, October 29)
Facebook Fan Engagement: 5.8% Fan Activity (7,717 likes · 444 talking about this)
YouTube: nothing!
Why nothing on YouTube? Still, people are raving about Clean, and for good reason: it rips.
