Metal By Numbers 12/14: The Path Of Decent Album Sales

Posted by on December 14, 2011

Metal By Numbers is a weekly column in which we look at the top metal sellers and debuts of the week.

After a few slow weeks leading up to Christmas, we’ve got two hard rock debuts cracking the top 20. This week’s big debut comes from Korn’s highly buzzed album The Path Of Totality with a top ten debut and almost 55,000 copies sold. Their tenth album falls slightly short of their last album, Korn III – Remember Who You Are (which premiered at #2 and sold about 63,000 copies in its first week). Keep in mind, though, that it’s only been about a year since they released their last studio album. Plus, for an album that’s received mixed reviews (Revolver Magazine may have named it “album of the year,” but most haven’t been as accepting of Korn’s heavily electronic-influenced record), it’s pretty impressive it was able to shift as many copies as it did. In fact, correct us if we’re wrong, but The Path of Totality might be the first-ever dubstep record to debut in the top ten. This could be the tipping point for the genre as to where it truly became mass appeal. Regardless, Korn can be pleased with how their “experimental” record did in its first week, especially during a time when Christmas music dominates the charts this time of year (case in point: this week’s #1 album is Michael Buble’s Christmas, which almost sold gold (479,000) in one week.

 

Notable Debuts:

Korn, The Path of Totality (Roadrunner) #10, 54,730 sold
While you can’t expect any band to sell as many units as they did even five years ago nowadays, The Path Of Totality does mark the first time a Korn album hasn’t debuted in the top 5 since 2003’s Take A Look In the Mirror (which premiered at #9).

 

Chevelle, Hats Off to the Bull (Epic) #19, 43,230 sold
Though the hard rock trio’s sixth studio album didn’t chart as high as 2009’s Sci-Fi Crimes (which debuted at #6), it did only sell around 3,000 copies less than its predecessor. That’s pretty impressive considering there’s only a two year gap between albums.

 

Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross, The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo [Soundtrack] (Null) #78, 10,580 sold
Reznor and Ross’ score for The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo sells slightly less in its first week than their Oscar winning score for The Social Network. Considering that the score (and it’s many deluxe editions) was just released this past Friday (December 9), though, this is a pretty solid debut.

 

Volbeat, Live from Beyond Hell / Above Heaven (Universal) 960 sold
A pretty solid first week the Danish rockabilly metal group’s new live album, especially considering that their latest album Beyond Hell/ Above Heaven is still charting (even after 56 weeks).

 

Devin Townsend Project, Contain Us (InsideOut) 450 sold
Considering that this includes all four albums recorded under the moniker Devin Townsend Project,  plus two additional CD and DVDs of bonus material, we’d say Hevy Devy’s box set has a very solid week (note, while it’s unclear whether these sales calculate both the standard $80 edition and limited $100 deluxe edition, we do know that the latter sold out pretty fast).

 

 

Notable Sales:

Five Finger Death Punch, American Capitalist (Prospect Park) #68, 12,900 sold
FFDP have reason to celebrate this week prior to Christmas, as their third album receives a nice 28% increase in sales.

 

Evanescence, Evanescence (Wind-Up) #76, 10,630 sold
When you were watching the Nobel Peace Prize Concert this past weekend, did you think “What the hell is Evanescense doing there?” Actually, let’s rephrase that question: did anyone even watch the Nobel Peace Prize Concert this past weekend?

 

Disturbed, The Lost Children (Reprise) #86, 9,000 sold
Despite a modest 4% increase in sales, Disturbed’s b-side album slips out of the top 100.

 

Foo Fighters, Wasting Light (RCA) #121, 6,340 sold
Grohl and the gang experience a nice 27% increase in sales. A very solid week for the recently announced Bamboozle headliners.

 

Megadeth, TH1RT3EN (Roadrunner) #154, 4,300 sold
Despite dropping 17 spots down the charts, Megadeth experience a solid 10% increase following Dave Mustaine’s fun weekend activities.

 

Avenged Sevenfold, Nightmare (Warner Bros.) #185, 3,940 sold
An impressive 23% increase in sales finds the band only three spots up the charts.

 

Chris Cornell, Songbook (Universal) #197, 3,740 sold
The Soundgarden frontman’s acoustic live collection finds itself three spots away from exiting the top 200 thanks in part to a 31% decrease.

 

Volbeat, Beyond Hell/Above Heaven (Universal) 1,550 sold
Looks like frontman Michael Poulsen might be working on a new collaboration soon.

 

Like Moths To Flames, When We Don’t Exist (Rise) 720 sold
An impressive 41% increase in sales for the group, just as the Thrash & Burn tour came to an end.

 

Carnifex, Until I Feel Nothing (Victory) 410 sold
A modest 7% increase in sales gives the deathcore band a little more time on the charts.

 

In the Midst of Lions, Shadows (Facedown) 400 sold
Another 25% decrease for the Christian deathcore band in their third week.

 

A Plea For Purging, The Life & Death of A Plea for Purging (Facedown) 360 sold
After being MIA last week, the metalcore group return to the charts, but plea as they might, they’re likely won’t be around for another week.

 

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