This week in Soundscan, supergroup Chickenfoot shifted a ridiculous number of records. I’m baffled too. Elsewhere, Iron Maiden had a solid debut and bands like Nickelback, Hollywood Undead, Shinedown, Slipknot, and Metallica continued on with business as usual.

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The infamous Now That’s What They Call Music comp, now it’s thirtieth iteration (!), will never stop selling. Nor will Hannah Montana. Given, it’s tough for any true metal band to crack the Billboard 200, but Mastodon did just once again that by notching a #11 debut with Crack the Skye, beat out metal-wise only by Papa Roach (ugh). Elsewhere, we got some surprises from Chris Cornell, Twiztid (!?) and others. Sales figures for those and other notable hard rock and metal releases after the jump.

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2008 has been a fucking great year for metal, and in due time — Monday, Dec. 15, to be exact — Axl, myself and the rest of the writers of MetalSucks will all release our Top 10 year-end lists so you can incessantly argue over which great album was left off or tell us we’re assholes for ranking a certain album higher than it should’ve been.

But for now, ya’ll can argue about something else: here’s my personal short/working list for said year-end list containing all of my favorite metal releases from this year as well as a few that aren’t likely to make my own list but will surely be appearing on others’. Feel free to pipe in with your thoughts or to notify us of any egregious omissions before we put together our final, ordered lists. Regardless, it is going to be really fucking hard to pick just 10 of these and put them in order of awesomeness.

And, my favorite metal records of 2008 in no particular order are…

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All is not lost in the world of metal; in fact, this past week brought some nice surprises, along with the usual mish-mash of shitty radio rock bands. Last week’s sales numbers, with our usual sardonic commentary, after the jump. (Hint: look at the tags below, and click “read more” if any of those bands interest you!).

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If you’re br00taler than br00tal, stop reading this review right now. If you only care to listen to the heaviest shit possible and can’t be bothered by hard rock, stop reading. But if you can keep your cool-o-meter in check and want to know about an awesome record, then keep going. That record is The Sound of Madness by Shinedown, and it’s easily the best hard rock record of 2008, eons ahead of the pack of the ho-hum radio rock bands with which they’re usually lumped in

What makes Shinedown so much better than the Breaking Benjamins and Seethers of the world? I’m not really sure, but in so many ways Shinedown is just infinitely better than any band you’re likely to hear on your local active rock radio station. Maybe it’s the dynamic songwriting or endless guitar and vocal hooks. Maybe it’s Brent Smith’s astonishing pipes. Maybe it’s this band’s desire to just ROCK without worrying about “cred.”

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Happy July 4th, everyone. Axl and I are closing down the MetalSucks Mansion a day early to get off of this swampy, hot, over-crowded island…. so this is it for us until next Monday. Enjoy your time-off; for our international readers, well… revel in the fact that you get *way* more days off than we lame Americans do throughout the whole year! Anyway, here’s what happened this week:

• Motley Crue and Shinedown had big sales debuts, while Disturbed and Kid Rock kept it going strong.
• The Human Abstract debuted more killer new music.
• We interviewed the brains behind one of our favorite albums of 2008 so far.
• David Draiman insists on having the last word in the ongoing Disturbed vs. Dillinger Escape Plan drama.
• The new Slipknot masks look kinda like the old Slipknot masks, but we like their new song.
• We asked what you thought of Straight Line Stitch; you answered loud and clear.

Cheers, everyone. Enjoy your time off.

-VN

Maybe the CD isn’t a dying format after all. Actually, fuck that, the CD is definitely in its death throes. But at least for one week the inevitable has been delayed, and some rock records actually moved serious tonnage. Motley Crue and Shinedown both debuted in the Top 10, Disturbed continued their inevitable march towards gold (and then platinum) at #9, and Kid Rock continued his rampage back up the charts to reach #12. Some abbreviated Soundscan numbers and positions after the jump:

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We usually don’t go for the active rock set at MetalSucks, but damn, Shinedown’s new single “Devour” is about the single catchiest hard rock track I have heard all year. I’d be lying by saying I didn’t listen to this thing three times in a row the other day… it’s just that fucking good!

I’ve always had a soft spot for Shinedown, too — their debut Leave a Whisper was an excellent album, even if their follow-up Us and Them fell a bit short. And frontman Brent Smith has some serious, serious pipes.

Listen to the new track “Devour” on Shinedown’s MySpace or Official Website. Their new album The Sound of Madness drops June 24th on Atlantic.

-VN