Metallica rockets to No. 1 with 'Death Magnetic'

As expected, Metallica steamrolled its way to the top of the national sales chart with the new “Death Magnetic” album, which sold 490,000 copies during just three days in release, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The album arrived Friday, rather than on the industry-standard Tuesday release, to coordinate with its worldwide release in a variety of ways. In addition to the conventional retail and downloads, the album is being offered by Ticketmaster as part of a concert ticket/album package, and it is available for Xbox and Playstation video game systems that make it compatible with “Guitar Hero 3.”

It’s the hard-rock group’s fifth album to enter the chart at No. 1, giving it the distinction of being the first act to pull off that feat five times. Metallica had been tied with the Beatles, U2 and the Dave Matthews Band at four each.

Before SoundScan started tracking actual retail sales in 1991, however, No. 1 debuts were less common. Record companies often skewed their reported sales to create the appearance of high-profile albums gaining popularity steadily after release instead of selling massively initially and then tailing off, as has been the rule in the SoundScan era.

Jessica Simpson’s new country album “Do You Know” entered at No. 4, and at No. 1 on the country album listing, with first-week sales of 65,000. That’s a notch higher on the chart than her 2006 pop album “A Public Affair” peaked at, but significantly less than the 101,000 copies that album sold when it debuted at No. 5.

The only other new addition to the Top 10 is LL Cool J’s “Exit 13,” which starts out at No. 9 with sales of 44,000 copies.

--Randy Lewis

Photo of Metallica's James Hetfield playing in Berlin earlier this month by Britta Pedersen / European Pressphoto Agency

Comments

[mal]

but many fans are complaining about the audio quality of the new cd, it seems the Guitar Hero game version audio is much better !!!

check out- http://www.musicnewsnet.com/2008/09/metallica-new-c.html

[WLADO]

METALLIAC RULEz !!!

[kk]

Good to see Metal on top of the charts instead of craprap and hip-suck