SOUNDSCAN: MEGADETH, BLACK DAHLIA, SHADOWS FALL, EVERY TIME I DIE AND MORE
Wednesday, September 23rd, 2009 at 12:45pm by Vince NeilsteinLast Tuesday was a huuuuge week for new metal releases. Megadeth, Black Dahlia Murder, Shadows Fall, Living Colour, Dying Fetus, Porcupine Tree, Every Time I Die, Thrice and Ace Frehley all released new albums, and all charted in the Top 200! After the jump, let’s look at where they all ended up.
9 MEGADETH - ENDGAME
This week: 44,696 (debut)
No surprise here. Megadeth is huge, and so is that number. Well done, Dave!
25 PORCUPINE TREE – THE INCIDENT
This week: 17,574 (debut)
This to me is shocking. I had no idea this band was so popular… I’m psyched for them.
27 ACE FREHLEY - ANOMALY
This week: 16,742 (debut)
I can’t believe this charted so high! No idea anyone still cared.
35 SHADOWS FALL - RETRIBUTION
This week: 13,205 (debut)
A far cry for the 40-some-odd thousand debut of their last record, but in these times 13,000 is really fucking good. Now get out there on the road and sell some fucking merch!
43 BLACK DAHLIA MURDER - DEFLORATE
This week: 12,377 (debut)
46 EVERY TIME I DIE – NEW JUNK AESTHETIC
This week: 11,917
No idea how these two stack up against these bands’ prior releases, but I’m sure everyone is quite happy with these number.
47 THRICE - BEGGARS
This week: 11,686 (physical CD debut)
Cume: 26,191
This is a tricky one; because of the super-early album leak, Vagrant bumped up the digital release of the album to August, and they bumped up the physical release to last Tuesday (it had originally been in October). So while the 11,686 units shifted last week is technically a “debut,” it just includes physical CDs (plus whatever smaller amount of digital albums may have been sold last week). That’s a really solid number. The Cume number includes everything sold to date.
99 SAOSIN - IN SEARCH OF SOLID GROUND
This week: 5,333
Cume: 26,984
I had no idea Saosin even had a new record out. Oh well.
114 CHICKENFOOT - CHICKENFOOT
This week: 4,302
Cume: 315,352
Radio still sells CDs to old people.
121 HALESTORM - HALESTORM
This week: 4,012
Cume: 88,879
Low by major label standards but still good for a brand new band; the more people see this band live, the better they will do.
159 LIVING COLOUR - CHAIR IN THE DOORWAY
This week: 2,822 (debut)
I can’t imagine anyone thought Living Colour would sell a ton of records. Still, it’s good to know that people still care about this excellent band. And at this point I get the impression Living Colour are making music solely to satisfy themselves… so really, who cares how well the album sells?
166 DYING FETUS - DESCEND INTO DEPRAVITY
This week: 2,714
This one to me is shocking, that Dying Fetus can sell nearly as many records as Living Colour. I had no idea this band was so popular.
184 KILLSWITCH ENGAGE - KILLSWITCH ENGAGE
This week: 2,515
Cume: 134,701
It’s go time for Roadrunner. Either this record spawns a big radio single, or this record is done. Is Killswitch’s time ending?
198 SLIPKNOT - ALL HOPE IS GONE 2,298 2 2,255 826,578
All this record needs is a special edition re-release to push it platinum.
-VN
Nice. Didn’t know ETID would sell so much. Good week all around. Megadeth proves to be… well, Megadeth. Thrice is definitely worthy buying. Have the digital now have to buy the physical.
What the hell? How did Ace Freshley beat Living Colour?
Damn, I didn’t know Porcupine Tree had a new cd out. Have to pick that one up.
Halestorm is great rock…..sorta free-spirited female-influenced, but good for decompression listening.
Porcupine Tree???? Debuting at 25? That’s fucking unreal!
I’ve looked online and I can’t find a copy of it… that might be why people are buying it.
Where’s the bad pun about Porcupine Tree “poking” through?
Aw, you didn’t even mention Kittie.
They’re not trendy enough to be mentioned on here.
Didn’t know they had another album out, either….another on the list of cds to pick up.
Killswitch’s time is not over, that CD just blows in comparison to earlier work. Maybe if they switched up their formula for writing tunes, people could get excited about their music again. If you ask me, that CD only has 1 good song on it. The rest is just the same ol’ same ol’ Killswitch….riff riff, chorus, riff riff, chorus, breakdown, chorus, end…
I agree! This CD lacks the passion that the previous releases had! They should write something along the lines of AOJB but obviously that will never happen. They are in a different mind set now…but bring back the heavy…….They lost it with this record!!!!!!!!!!!!!
didn’t mention 3 inches of blood? I am curious to know how that sold…
is it just me or this a very slow news day…?
It’s you. This is not a news site.
Or Insomnium….
You know what surprised me a little? Skinlab’s new CD only sold 380 copies. I mean, I know a lot of people don’t like them but I thought the new tunes were solid.
I’m surprised it sold that many.
Really? People are ragging on Ace Frehley for doing so well? It’s his first album in 20 years- he’s sober for the first time ever & he’s still as influential as Jesus. Check yourself before you wreck yourself people!
No one’s really ragging on him. People are saying they’re surprised. Oh, and I wouldn’t put him all that high on “influential” list, either.
“Influential as Jesus”????? Fuck your mother.
Uh, Vince, Shadows Fall’s album sold 24k in its opening week and debuted at No.46. I think you got a little confused.
BDM’s last album, Nocturnal, charted at 72 with 9,600 while Miasma started with 9,000 for a No.118 debut so they’ve experienced a nice progression over the past 4 years. EITD’s last album, The Big Dirty, debuted at No.41 with 14k while the one before that, Gutter Phenomenon, came in at 71 and also sold 14k in its debut week so they are holding up ok
Rik Powell, Kittie came in at No.132 with 3,400 copies, which is 3,400 more than I was expecting.
Cougar party, 3IOB charted last week at No.195 with 2,300 copies sold.
Thanks for posting these, Vince..
thanks. That’s significantly lower than Fire up the Blades. Then again, they don’t t have quite the promotional $ that they had with Roadrunner.
Dying Fetus have moved up into granddaddy status. Bona fide veterans now. DF is a big influence on a bunch of the deathcore bands and their fans are figuring that out. Also helps that this new album slays in a big way.
I love how this dumbass says
“Is this Killswitch album done for?” and its sold 134k copies, opened with 60k
Shadows Fall opens with 13k and its “but in these times, 13k is really fucking good!”
It’s a matter of comparison.
exactly. For a band like Killswitch who are supposed to be one of the ‘bigger’ metal bands 134k since it was released is pretty poor even considering the general slide in music sales.
Anyone know how Skindred did?
That’d be good to know. Considering they toured with Disturbed for a while they should probably sell a few extra copies.
Probably not.
Shadows Fall and Killswitch had one(ok, in Killswitch’s case twp) really solid album. Everything afterwards has been trying to captialize on that and it just hasn’t worked out. Everthing these two bands do will be compared to War Within and End of Heartache. They’ll probably continue to make good music, but not great music
Lol….I would say more like compared to “Art of War” and “Alive or Just Breathing”….just my opinion though
Sorry I meant “Art of Balance”
It’s kind of sad… I mean I’m in a metal band, and we’re just starting out. Ten years ago if you got picked up by a record company you’d probebly get 15k sales just for being at the level of recording/touring band. Now seasoned bands like Black Dahlia Murder only get 13k? Point being, if BDM has to sruggle for 14k albums sold, I’d be happy if my band every sells ten records. I forget, did soundscan ever figure out how to put itunes downloads in their numbers?
Have to remember, 10 years ago, music-sharing wasn’t nearly like what it is today, nor were so many people more worried about buying singles than full albums (I’d be interested in seeing a per-single sales chart from iTunes or whatever next to a per-album chart), and figure in the totally fucked economy (meaning more people are downloading instead of buying, and everyone else is keeping money tight).
Granted, I’m surprised bands as big as Killswitch or as “everyone friendly” as Chickenfoot is had such poor sales, but that’s just a stronger indicator that the economy is down, Christmas is coming up, and downloading keeps on going strong.
but you’re talking about what is essentially a niche band. remember: metal is a genre where some of the biggest bands are selling, at most, 200k albums. sure, you have slipknot or metallica who are pushing 1, 2 mil, but those are definitely the exception rather than the rule. compare that to people like nickelback or justin timberlake who are selling 10 million easy. i mean, a lot of people who listen to metal may know about bdm, but it’s not like they’re really appealing to as many people as you might think they are.
Itunes are in soundscan and have been for quite a while.
killswitch makes one crappy album and you ask if their time is done!? fuck off.
“Funniest Thing I’ve Read In A Long Time” a book by Double D
I saw Porcupine Tree in Cleveland on Monday, and was astonished at how many non metal-head, non prog-nerds were there.Steven Wilson’s work has more crossover appeal than I ever thought.
Damn non-prog nerds moving in on your territory!
Cool. I almost bought the Megadeth yesterday. But Walmart wanted almost $17 bucks for it (and only $12 for BDM) and I knew I could get it cheaper somewhere else. I own them all so I will own this one too.
I wanna go see them with Slayer in November but tix are $81!! for actually seats! not GA! I wish I had that kind of money.
Jesus Christ! $81! That’s ridiculous. I saw them last about 2 years ago and tix were 35+charges (so $45).
i bought bdm and i must say, i like it a lot.
and saosin? since when is saosin metal?
i enjoy saosin, but really?
The previous two Killswitch albums have gone Gold and a lot of that had to do with reissuing them down the line with bonus tracks (particularly the Holy Diver track on the As Daylight Dies reissue). However, as I doubt Roadrunner could reissue the new album as it already had a “Special Edition” on its release, it will probably struggle to go Gold, but I’m sure over the albums life cycle it will still sell in excess of 300,000 copies. In fact, the album has been selling steadily for several months now with a few thousand copies each week. Nothing at all wrong with those figures and I think they have only released one single/video so far as well.
Never underestimate Roadrunners ability to put, err pump, out deluxe editions
Killswitch suck balls. Novelty metal
All you “little picture” metal heads need to read more and get some perspective. Do you really think Slipknot’s 827,000 in sales is proof of some sellout corporate rock? Or that 3 famous musicians and a drummer from a famous band forming a new group and selling 315k is proof that old people buy records from the radio? Or that Killswitch selling 135k is a huge number? Do you realize that a band who hasn’t recorded a new album in 40 years has just sold 2.25 MILLION albums in FIVE days after remastering part of its catalog. No, I’ve never liked the Beatles. Not ever. And no, smart asses, they’re not part of “my generation”.
The point is, metalheads seem to forget that this general genre of metal and harder rock is a very small microcosm of the musical landscape. There is a large percentage of the population that would consider Hoobastank’s more “rock” songs to be metal. I’m always amazed at the huge lack of perspective among the fans of the music we discuss here.
That was boring.
827,000 is a sellout number because we do know that its a very small microcosm community…having said that…I love Slipknot…Lol
Hey fuck you man, the Beatles were great. They don’t need you realizing this anyway.
Chickenfoot is ABSOLUTELY HANDS DOWN proof that the older rock demographic still buy shit that gets played on the radio.
I didn’t mean to say the older rock demo doesn’t buy stuff played on the radio. I meant that 315,000 copies doesn’t really prove anything considering the Beatles just sold two million albums in less than a week and their music is spread all over the FM dial, from easy listening to oldies to classic rock. And Nickelback sells 5 million to a wider demo of older, younger, male, female. And Seether can go platinum + selling largely to males in their 20s. Hell, the best selling artist since Jan 1, 2000 is – get this – Linkin Park. That is not a lie. Linkin Park has sold more albums than any artist from any genre in the almost ten years beginning in 2000. Radio can help sell to ANY demographic.
Megadeth is my favorite band, no doubt, and I’m really loving Endgame.
But The Incident has got to be the best album to come out this year. I love it from start to finish.
If it makes anyone feel better about this exclusion, I did write a review for the new Kittie album.
Fuck yeah. I’m really happy for Porcupine Tree making it so far up on the list. I bought it the day it came out, and that’s saying something for me since I usually don’t buy music in physical form anymore, but I do make some exceptions. This brightens me up thinking there’s still some people out there interested in, not good, but smart and great music-making.
Also, good to see Megadeth back in form. Didn’t like UA much. Way better job on this one. And as far as the Dying Fetus, I’ve never heard them but seeing as this site was drowned in ads for the release of their album for like a week, barely selling any units should be a kick in the balls, hahaha.
Before I forget. The new MUSE is fucking great too. I’m with Axl on this one. If you’re gonna listen to any non-metal band, this is it.
Way to go, Porcupine Tree! that album needs a few listens to digest though.. it’s a totally different listen than Deadwing