Metallica sell, and everybody's buying. We know that the Black Album is a monster, but sometimes we might forget, that the rest of their early catalog still sells very very well.
To my point, Metal Insider compiled a list of the top selling metal albums of the last year, and five Metallica records rank in the top six, with Metallica's debut coming in at #19. The only other band in the top five are Disturbed, with Megadeth's Dystopia ranking at (a respectable) #7. Here's the list:
- Metallica, Hardwired… To Self Destruct (Blackened Recordings)
516,000 sold - Disturbed, Immortalized (Reprise)
298,000 sold - Metallica, Metallica (Blackened Recordings)
267,500 sold - Metallica, Master of Puppets (Blackened Recordings)
163,000 sold - Metallica, …And Justice For All (Blackened Recordings)
155,000 sold - Metallica, Ride the Lightning (Blackened Recordings)
153,000 sold - Megadeth, Dystopia (Tradecraft/uME)
148,000 sold - Five Finger Death Punch, Got Your Six (Prospect Park)
146,500 sold - Avenged Sevenfold, The Stage (Capitol)
144,000 sold - Guns N’ Roses, Greatest Hits (Interscope/Geffen)
138,000 sold - Deftones, Gore (Reprise)
133,000 sold - Volbeat, Seal the Deal & Lets Boogie (Republic)
123,000 sold - AC/DC, Back in Black (Columbia)
117,000 sold - Guns N’ Roses, Appetite For Destruction (Interscope/Geffen)
115,000 sold - Nirvana, Nevermind (Interscope/DGC)
114,000 sold - Trans-Siberian Orchestra, The Ghosts of Christmas Eve (Atlantic)
113,000 sold - Shinedown, Threat to Survival (Atlantic)
110,000 sold - Pierce the Veil, Misadventures (Fearless)
105,000 sold - Metallica, Kill ’em All (Blackened Recordings)
104,000 sold - A Day To Remember, Bad Vibrations (ADTR)
102,000 sold - Korn, The Serenity of Suffering (Roadrunner)
100,000 sold
It goes to show that legacy acts are still where all the big money is. The only newer bands here are A Day To Remember, Pierce the Veil and Volbeat – all who already have a decade under their belt. Avenged Sevenfold could have likely been much higher on this list, had they gone the traditional promo route.
[via MetalSucks]