Metal By Numbers is a weekly column in which we look at the top metal sellers and debuts of the week as well as what’s getting played at metal radio courtesy of radio trade magazine FMQB, whose metal panel consists of about 80 college and commercial stations that have metal shows, as well as SiriusXM, Music Choice, and more.

With the holidays just around the corner, everyone’s stopped putting out new albums. And pretty much stopped buying metal albums. Well, not really, but there are so many superstar pop releases and holiday albums that metal is under-represented this week. Over-represented? Susan Boyle. For the second week in a row, the Ernest Borgnine lookalike has sold over 500,000 albums, and has sold a whopping 1.2 million copies already. So anyway, Trans-Siberian Orchestra have the biggest selling metal album of the week. Surprising? Hardly.

NOTE: Since the radio world is pretty much done for the year, there were no FMQB charts. However, we’ll take a look at their year-end chart tomorrow. As for album sales, check ‘em out after the jump.

Notable Sales:

Trans-Siberian Orchestra, Night Castle (Atlantic) #23, 40,000 sold
A way impressive 34% increase from last week. This album won’t go gold this Christmas, but their other multi-platinum albums and a stack of unsold Savatage records should distract them from that.

Them Crooked Vultures, Them Crooked Vultures (DGC/Interscope) #59, 16,000 sold
You should give this album another shot. It’s not the second coming, but it sounds like the best QOTSA album since Songs for the Deaf.

Alice In Chains, Black Gives Way To Blue (Virgin) #64, 14,500 sold
This had a 50% jump from last week. I refuse to believe it’s from the Grammy nomimations.  

Chickenfoot, Chickenfoot (Redline Entertainment) #119 7,500
380,000 Van Hagar fans can be wrong.

KISS, Sonic Boom (KISS Records) #134 6,500 sold
You wanted the best! But you couldn’t afford it, so you went to Wal Mart. Oh look, KISS has a new album out…

Hollywood Undead, Desperate Measures (Octone) #153  5,000 sold
Why do people keep buying albums by this band?

Slayer, World Painted Blood (Sony) #156  5,000 sold
It’s up to over 75,000 sold, which ain’t bad for any metal album, even if it is by Slayer.

AC/DC, Backtracks (Sony Legacy) #164 4,800 sold
The  live stuff is probably better than the B-sides. When songs aren’t released, it’s usually for a reason.

Five Finger Death Punch, War Is The Answer (Prospect Park) #167 4,500 sold
The first 100 girls to buy this pay full price!

Hollywood Undead, Swan Songs (A&M/Octone) #169  5,300 sold
No, seriously, why do people keep buying albums by this band?

Motley Crue, Greatest Hits (Eleven Seven Music) #179, 4,200 sold
Only 18,000 people have picked this up so far. Take a walk on the mild side is more like it.

Wolfmother, Cosmic Egg (Interscope) #181, 4,100 sold
This album’s kinda slowly doing what it’s doing, but the last album was a slow builder too.

Dethklok, Dethalbum II (Williams Street) #188 4,000 sold
This has moved about 110,000 so far. Awesome for any band, even better for a band that began as a cartoon.

Halford, Halford III: Winter Songs (Metal God) 1,000 sold
A 31% increase this week. Christmas music bump, or metalheads just finding out that Rob Halford

Baroness, Blue Record (Relapse) 850 sold
More people need to pick up on this album. I mean, Decibel named it their album of the year!

Nile, Those Whom the Gods Detest (Nuclear Blast) 800 sold
This should be selling better. Maybe people are only buying one Egypt-themed release and picking up something by that crappy trendy indie-rock band Phoenix.

Epica, Design Your Universe (Nuclear Blast) 550 sold
Symphonic metal band’s album has moved about 4,600, but not enough to make me care.

Speaking of not caring, Attack Attack! sold some albums too, and I should write about how many that was, but no.

Bring Me The Horizon, Suicide Season (Epitaph) 500 sold
This album will probably have sold 80,000 by Christmas.

Austrian Death Machine, Double Brutal (Metal Blade) 500 sold
There should be a band from Minnesota that makes an album in the persona of Minnesota governor and Predator actor Jesse “The Body Ventura.”

Pelican, What We All Come to Need (Southern Lord) 470 sold
This album’s definitely a grower, despite what some douchebag from the Village Voice thinks.

Dying Fetus, Descend Into Depravity (Relapse)
We’re not sure if it’s the album or the Max Payne/Sin City-inspired artwork that caused a 21% bump in album sales this week, but whatever it is, it worked.

Skindred, Shark Bites and Dog Fights (Bieler Brothers) 400 sold
We’d like a Dub War reunion, please.