Metallica achieve sixth number one album on Billboard 200 Chart

Metallica achieve sixth number one album on Billboard 200 Chart

Metallica‘s latest studio album Hardwired…To Self-Destruct has proven to be the thrash metal giants’ sixth album to reach the number one spot on the coveted Billboard 200 Chart.

The following are excerpts from the Billboard article published yesterday in that regard:

“Metallica scores its sixth No. 1 album on the Billboard 200 chart with the arrival of Hardwired… to Self-Destruct. The set debuts atop the list with 291,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Nov. 24, according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 282,000 were in traditional album sales. Hardwired was released on Metallica’s own Blackened Records on Nov. 18.

The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption, which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The new Dec. 10-dated chart (where Metallica launches at No. 1) will be posted in full to Billboard’s websites on Tuesday, Nov. 29.

Hardwired’s start is the third-largest debut of 2016 — both in terms of overall units and traditional album sales — behind only the arrivals of Drake’s Views (1.04 million units; 852,000 in sales) and Beyonce’s Lemonade (653,000 units; 485,000 sales).

Further, Hardwired sold more in its first week than any rock album in two-and-a-half years. The last rock album to sell more in a single week was Coldplay’s Ghost Stories, which bowed with 382,000 copies sold on the chart dated June 7, 2014.

Hardwired is Metallica’s first studio album since 2008’s Death Magnetic, which also bowed at No. 1, with 490,000 copies sold in its first week. Metallica’s last six studio albums, stretching back to its self-titled album (usually referred to as The Black Album) in 1991, have debuted at No. 1. Before Death Magnetic, the band topped the chart with St. Anger (in 2003), Reload (1997), Load (1996) and Metallica (1991).

Following Death Magnetic, the group released a collaborative album with Lou Reed (Lulu in 2011, which peaked at No. 36), an EP (Beyond Magnetic in 2012, No. 29) and the soundtrack to the documentary Metallica: Through the Never (2013; No. 9).”

You can read the rest of the article at Billboard.

Sleaze Roxx stated the following in its review of Metallica‘s Hardwired…To Self-Destruct: “Past and present unite and thus Hardwired…To Self-Destruct is not Metallica‘s comeback album (which will never happen), nor is it a disposable piece of music. If you expected the former, don’t even bother. If on the other hand, you are alright with Metallica having a totally different sound than in the late ’80s and early ’90s, you enjoyed Death Magnetic, and you are ready for a similar yet somewhat better album — inconsistent as it is — you’ll enjoy listening to, dissecting, and discussing Hardwired…To Self-Destruct.”