THIS WEEK IN SOUNDSCAN: ASSJACK AND A BUNCH OF FAILURES
Wednesday, August 12th, 2009 at 4:00pm by Vince NeilsteinLast week was somewhat of a slow one for metal record sales. There weren’t a whole lot of new releases, but a few records that have been out for a while hung onto their spots in the Top 200 and Hank III’s Assjack project had a solid debut. Click through for chart positions and sales numbers.
74 KILLSWITCH ENGAGE – KILLSWITCH ENGAGE
This Week: 5,862
Cume: 112,935
I’m not certain, but I’d think this is somewhat behind pace for where the label expected it to be by this time. I could be wrong.
92 ASSJACK – ASSJACK
This Week: 4,749 (debut)
This debut sales figure probably doesn’t even recoup the amount they spent on advertising with MetalSucks. Ouch.
159 DREAM THEATER – BLACK CLOUDS & SILVER LININGS
This Week: 2,827
Cume: 70,722
Probably about on pace for what was expected of this record, right? It’s Dream Theater; fans will always buy their records, but beyond that it’s a tough sell.
169 DEVIL WEARS PRADA – WITH ROOTS ABOVE & BRANCHES BELOW
This Week: 2,668
Cume: 80,429
They still suck.
185 DEVILDRIVER – PRAY FOR VILLAINS
This Week: 2,491
Cume: 25,618
People just aren’t that into this band.
188 MARILYN MANSON – HIGH END OF LOW
This Week: 2,472
Cume: 104,700
As far as Manson goes, this is a colossal failure. Dude has fallen upon hard times.
190 SUICIDE SILENCE – NO TIME TO BLEED
This Week: 2,404
Cume: 32,026
I really have no idea what Century Media expected this record to sell. 32,000 units (and counting) has got to be amongst their top selling releases of the year (the only others I can think of that approach or surpass that number are God Forbid and Lacuna Coil), so I’m thinking Century is probably pretty pleased with this. Whereas for a label with a big overhead like Roadrunner this is a terrible number, for Century it works quite nicely.
194 JOB FOR A COWBOY – RUINATION
This Week: 2,359
Cume: 25,640
Another one that I think fell short of expectations, but for another smaller label (Metal Blade) that’s still a decent number.
-VN
Wow, that whole list is fucking depressing
Maybe people are developing better taste in music
You are depressing!
DevilDriver – Pray For Villains is EPIC and deserves more!
That CD sucks ass and is their worst yet, how can you possibly like it?
-.- i guess “the DevilDriver album” will always be way better than anything DevilDriver can make but it wasnt that bad i mean just because the older DevilDriver albums are better doesnt mean this one suxx!
But i may have misused the word EPIC :S
Pray for Villains wasnt that bad and deserves abit more.
Their last 2 CDs had some really great stuff on them, pray for villains is a cool song, but the rest of the CD was surprisingly awful. His vocals took a turn for the worst and its just slow and not as creative as they used to be. Not that I was expecting some incredible album, but a solid one at least.
What about Mastodon? What are their cumulative sales?
Hank III’s label waited too many years to release Assjack. He has been selling the bootlegs for years (I have one from about 7 years ago with most of the songs on it and it sounds better than the studio version). Had Mike Curb not been a twat and released this back then, it would’ve sold a lot better. 4,000 is still pretty good with little to no advertising.
ehhh the ss and jfac isnt expected to be amazing # of record sales but regardless they kicked ass
“Devildriver…people just aren’t into this band”
that’s not true, lots of metalheads are into Devildriver.
they’re just not into the new album…because it blows.
They’re not making any new fans though and as time goes on, it’s natural to lose fans. They are quickly falling into, “no one cares” territory.
People cared about them in the first place?
A handful.
No one of consequence did.
Fuck You
My balls stink.
devildriver aren’t bad, but they are about as generic as you can possibly get.
yeah, they don’t do anything for me, but they are way better than Coal Chamber ever was.
Every Devildriver album blows.
*slaps you with Last Kind Words*
I love DevilDriver. I don’t get why they get such a bad rap. They’re not generic and they are miles better than any of the core crap that is out there. Vastly underrated band.
Think they’re incredibly generic, run of the mill, lowest common denominator metal.
Because no matter what he does, dez will always have been the singer for coal chamber.
Devildriver will eat your shitty Mallcore metal for Breakfast…all the young bands are pussies that whine about bullshit…might as well be fuckin’ emo
Yeah, because I think Devildriver is retarded means I like “mallcore.” Get a life, knuckle-dragger.
The Assjack numbers are interesting. Hank III posted a message on his Myspace page thanking everyone for supporting Assjack as it was “virtually sold out at every retailer”. Seems strange he would say that. Maybe he didn’t really know what he was talking about.
Didn’t know what he was talking about?? Come on, you think that’s a possibility??
Well he probably knows how many copies the label printed up and compared that # to the number sold
Precisely. None of us are privy to the actual quantity of albums in that first run, nor are we aware of Curb/Bruc’s expectations for this album. That it made the Top 100 is enough for celebration.
Why do labels even put out CD’s? Its dead and these sales numbers prove it. All bands should just release their own music on Itunes and call it the day. If a band cant sell it then they should keep their day jobs. Music and the industry are dying.
These Soundscan numbers include CDs *and* iTunes album sales.
So basically to make money, you have to have a song or two on Rock Band and/or Guitar Hero and/or a car commercial
But what about Mastodon?
You know that 80% of most metal bands are actual, tangible CD sales, right? Most metal albums only sell 10% digital, bringing that up to 90% of CDs. So you think that metal bands should walk away from 80-90% of their sales just because some blog thinks it’s fashionable to parrot the same line you’re parroting here?
Sales are down everywhere, but it’s a straw fucking man to say that bands should walk away from CDs because of these sales.
That’s entirely believable, how many vendors do you think actually stocked assjack? And of those vendors, I’m sure they only each had a maximum of 10 copies. I’m really surprised to see the suicide silence and JFAC numbers so low. Weren’t these the two bands “breaking death metal into the mainstream metal community?”
Best Buy had it up front and still do for $9.99. If they have it I’m guessing just about everyone has it. The Best Buy by me had about 8 copies last week.
JFAC needs to get Demi Whatever to guest on a song. Then the mindless parents will buy it up, and BAM! Profit.
you also have to take that we are going through somewhat of a recession, so people arent going out and just buying albums, there being downloaded. If you were to take the numbers of how many albums a band sold plus how many people downloaded that album i bet there would be a significant rise in numbers.
PS: TDWP obviously doesnt suck sine there still selling at somewhat good number and they are one of “the” bands that almost everyone knows there name…..and yes nobody cares about devildriver
so just because everyone knows who DWP are that makes them good?
with that logic, that means that the jonas brothers are the best fucking band on the planet!
BTW: nobody may care about Devildriver but I’d rather to them than ANYTHING by DWP.
*listen
sorry dude but crappy bands just dont get famous out of nowhere….and yes the jonas brothers arent a good band at all…according to us cause we dont listen to silly disney crappy music but, they are prolly one of the most popular bands right now in the world …….plus how do you know if a band is good, what do you judge how fast or how “brutal” or evil they are….fuck that the only thing that matters if it sounds good. Have you heard the new tdwp album, that shit is sick, melodic, catchy, something you can bang your head to.
Holy christ, most of you idiots don’t know what you’re talking about
Bob’s right. Plus, digital sales still only account for 10-20% of total sales. People still buy cds. Suicide and JFAC are good numbers.
idea, stop buying devil wears prada, jfac, and suicide silence albums and maybe we’ll save metal?
Don’t fool yourself, metal is alive and well.
JFAC is that bad. But what about Mastodon? What did they sell?
do any of the people who visit this website actually enjoy any metal? it just seems like everything sucks to you people, whether it’s other members or even the people who run the site. Lighten up a little bit.
Agreed.
The amount of whinging in the metal community with bands such as JFAC and Suicide Silence is embarrassing, and the numbers while solid for a metal band, are so very far behind the big numbers actual “mainstream” artists sell.
If there weren’t so many shitty bands who pass themselves off as metal then there wouldn’t be so much complaining.
For the record, Job for a Cowboy and Suicide Silence SUCK.
Anytime I think of Blow Job For a Cowboy and suicide silence. I think of Hit Parader + Hot Topic + Jnco Jeans. Figure it out.
Not surprised at the sales result for Manson. The High end of low absolutely sucks. Even Eat me, drink me is much better.
Marilyn Manson is a joke and why he is headlining is Mayhem Fest is fucking retarted. Overall numbers are going to go down every month every year. People download. People download books now. I mean come on fucking books? The world is coming to an end. No one is going to pay for anything and then wonder why the economy is in the shitter. By the way devildriver is not that bad….their new album is terrible though.
Geek Beater with all the answers to the world’s problems.
GEEK BEATER 2012
I’m surprised KsE cracked six figures already. I thought their albums sold slower than this. Either way, good for them!
No way. This is pretty common for them.
Yeah, except for DevilDriver’s title track, this latest album kinda sucked compared to their usual stuff.
KsE’s album fell quickly. It debuted at #7… glad to see it sold quite well overall though.
Assjack… maybe I should check that out.
Suicide Silence… I didn’t like their first effort, but this one was much better. I’m /slightly/ surprised it didn’t sell a /little/ better than this.
I do plan to by Job For A Cowboy’s album.
I’ve been thinking about Devil Wears Prada as well… but after that was a movie? I dunno.
And fuck Manson. He’s like Linkin Park mixed with Michael Jackson. Seriously. I don’t get him.
Otherwise. What about Earthsblood sales? That was an amazing album.
Great sale numbers for Job For A Cowboy they certainly deserve it.
RUINATION isa Monster.
Combine the fact that most of these albums are just ok and that a lot of people just steal albums instead of buying them.
So sales are where they are cause of both reasons.
I own all but Assjack, Devil wears prada, and Devil driver. I’m seriously not so impressed with any of them. (The ones I own). I mean I don’t hate them. But they aren’t gonna move albums unless they are REAL good.
The problem with most of these bands. NO HOOKS. Hooks sell music and these bands don’t have em.
Glad to see Devildriver is outselling JFAC. Down with the hype machine!
DD are on a major. JFAC are not. There’s also been a SHIT TON of hype for DD. I don’t know what you’ve been looking at.
Music is downloaded for free -thats how bands like JFAC and Suicide Silence sell a bunch of shirts and get good showings at their tours. Kids know about them and they’re popular but no one thinks to go to a record store and buy the CD.
As for Killswitch and DevilDriver, both are decent released but at the same time, are just more of the same from both of those bands. probably why neither is going to sell much more. Those bands peaked years ago.
DD were never in the same league as KSE, though.
maybe the reason the arent selling is because DD and SS ’s albums just arent up to par with their latest
*previous
What about Mastodon?
Is it about “Soundscan” or good music?
Then again, I dont like ONE BAND listed in the above article.
It’s about both. More so good music but album sales don’t hurt.