Tool Score #1 Album, Dethroning Taylor Swift

The official numbers have been released, and the projections from last week have proven true: Tool’s new album, Fear Inoculum, has landed at #1 in its first week of release. Taylor Swift held the #1 spot the week prior and has since been bumped down to #2, prompting some hilarious reactions from fans of hers who had never heard of Tool before.

Fear Inoculum shifted 270,000 units in its first week of release, beating out projections that had it selling between 240k and 260k, good for the fifth biggest debut of 2019 so far.

What’s more, 252,000 of those were from actual album sales, with 1,500 stream equivalents per one unit accounting for the rest. Even more impressive, the album did not benefit from D2C (“direct to consumer” sales on the band or label’s website) or bundling free downloads with live tickets, as Slipknot did earlier in August.

Congrats to Tool for an incredible showing after 13 years. And a damn good album too.

Tool just announced a massive North American tour; dates here!