Metallica Could Beat Katy Perry for Top New Album Charts Honors This Week

Despite all the championing of “the underground” and various “this music is not for you!!” epithets, metalheads absolutely love it when one of our own tops a pop star, an inherent contradiction in that metal musicians basically have to be pop musicians to do so. When Tool dethroned Taylor Swift last year it was cause for celebration, for example.

I expect nothing short of a full scale rager, then (socially distanced, of course), if Metallica beat out Katy Perry this week, a possibility raised by the charts projectors over at Hits Daily Double. Both artists are projected to sell between 50,000 and 60,000 copies of their new albums, but Metallica have the edge on physical units — roughly 8,000 units more — which would give them the edge if all other things are equal (that’s my understanding, anyway).

That would put Metallica’s S&M2 at #4 and Katy Perry’s Smile at #5, both of which came out on Friday, August 28. The top three spots are all occupied by releases that came out in July but are still selling strong from Taylor Swift (oh hey there she is again), Pop Smoke and Juice Wrld.

So that would be real cool and all for Metallica, who also just became the first rock act to notch a #1 track in four different decades. We will of course keep you all updated on whether this latest feat comes to pass once the final tallies are in.

But this is how my mind works these days: I wonder what that Katy Perry album sounds like? She’s had some bangers over the years! Gonna peep it now. You can too, below.