Neilstein Soundscam: Soilworkers Union, Papa for Pope, Clutch Hitting, Oceanic Studies and More
Axl took over the Soundscam column in my absence last week and did a damn fine job of it, wouldn’t you say? Let’s all give Axl a hearty round of applause. And while you may think he was abusing his privilege by giving Pig Destroyer yet another plug, fuck you it’s his website too.
Here is something I have learned about “talking about this” stats on Facebook from the first several weeks of doing this column in the new format: 10% is a really good number. If 10% or more of your total Facebook fanbase is talking about you, you’re killing it. If you’re between 5% and 10% you’re still probably doing pretty well. Below 5% is weak.
As a reminder, if you’re after pure sales figures from Soundscan, they’re available at Metal Insider this week and every week.
1. Soilwork / Peak: 1 / Last Week: 1 / Weeks On: 2
In the absence of any big new releases last week, Soilwork retain the number one spot. The Living Infinite experienced a drop of roughly two-thirds, about average for a second week these days, with 2,575 units sold. 16,787 are talking about them on Facebook which actually an increase from their release week — probably due to their current tour with Jeff Loomis — so I’d say folks are still pretty stoked on this band right now.
2. ↔ Within the Ruins / Peak: 2 / Last Week: 2 / Weeks On: 3
Similarly, I see no reason not to keep Within the Ruins at #2. The band’s new record sold just under 1,000 copies last week bringing it to around 6,200 total so far, and their video for “Feeding Frenzy” is smashing shit up with over 145,000 views. 5,865 people are talking about them on Facebook, which is around 7% of their total FB fanbase.
3. ↑ Kvelertak / Peak: 3 / Last Week: 5 / Weeks On: 7
Keep in mind the record’s not even out yet; a solid first-week sales number (which we won’t have until two weeks from now) could catapult this album to the #1 slot, but let’s be real, I don’t think even the staff at Roadrunner is expecting gangbusters from Meir. But the band continued to build buzz this week with a full-album stream at Stereogum (stats not available) and a gory new music video which has racked up nearly 30,000 views in just 3 days. The band continues to lag in the social networking category, with only 1,800 talking about them on Facebook out of 59,000 total fans (3%).
4. ↑ Clutch / Peak: 4 / Last Week: 6 Weeks On: 3
A full album stream of Earth Rocker kept the social buzz going, with around 12,000 talking them on Facebook (out of 190,000, around 6.3%), a similar number as last week. Curious to see what their first week number will be when it’s released next week.
5. ↑ Ghost / Peak: 5 / Last Week: 7 / Weeks On: 2
Ghost’s video for “Secular Haze” garnered nearly 100,000 new views last week alone to bring its total to over 400,000. Crikey! Maybe their unavoidable street sniping campaign at SXSW and dovetailed “Papa for Pope” marketing stunt and accompanying new song had something to do with the spike.
6. ↓ Suffocation / Peak: 1 / Last Week: 3 / Weeks On: 6
Suffo are starting to lose steam after an epic run. Album sales of Pinnacle of Bedlam are down, Facebook chatter is down (13,423 talking about them down from a peak of near 20,000), and the growth of YouTube plays has slowed. But they’ve still got a big U.S. tour on the horizon, so don’t count them out.
7. The Ocean / Peak: 7 / Last Week: n/a / Weeks On: 1
The buzz for The Ocean’s forthcoming album Pelagial is palpable, and its release is still over a month away. First we learned a whole lot of info about the concept behind the album, then we got a brand new track shortly thereafter. There are rumors floating around that The Ocean will appear on this year’s Summer Slaughter tour. And we got not one but two behind-the-scenes videos about the recording of the album. Every step of the way the comments have been overwhelmingly positive from MetalSucks readers. Maybe this is the album that finally breaks The Ocean in the U.S.? If the Summer Slaughter rumors are true it will certainly help. Nearly 3,000 talking about them on Facebook out of just 21,000 total, which greatly surpasses the 10% “buzz” threshold!
8. ↔ Rotting Christ / Peak: 8 / Last Week: 8 / Weeks On: 2
We really like this band and their awesomely good new album Kata Ton Diamona Eaytoy. The album sold 620 first week and 330 last week which is not shabby at all for this relatively obscure Greek band. 4,500 out of 47,000 are talking about them on Facebook, nearly 10%.
9. ↑ The Dillinger Escape Plan / Peak: 9 / Last Week: n/a / Weeks On: 2
New single “Prancer” has 150,000 plays on YouTube. 12,500 are talking about them on Facebook (double last week’s number) out of 172,000. There’s a tour on the horizon and an album coming in May. Gonna be huge.
10. Intronaut / Peak: 6 / Last Week: n/a / Weeks On: 1
After a lengthy stay on this chart earlier in the year only to lose buzz on drop off, Intronaut are back. Habitual Levitations is finally out (stream it here) so next week we’ll be able to report on sales figures. Our own Kip W. loved the album (read his review here). Meanwhile, the band has 4,500 out of 24,000 talking about them on Facebook… 18%! Awesome number.
