METALLICA's 'St. Anger' To Sell More Than 400K In Its First Week

June 9, 2003

METALLICA's "St. Anger" is on track to sell at least 400,000 copies in its first, shortened week on the streets, according to sources cited by Hits Daily Double, the companion web site of music industry tip sheet HITS.

That, of course, will put it on top of next week's The Billboard 200 chart, where it's likely to stay the following week as well, barring a successful challenge from Capitol's RADIOHEAD.

METALLICA's last studio album, "Re-Load", sold 435,000 units during its first week, while 1996's "Load" opened at 680,000. 1991's self-titled "black album" debuted with 598,000 and has since gone on to sell more than 12 million copies in the U.S.

As previously reported, Elektra Records moved "St. Anger"'s release date up from this Tuesday (June 10) to last Thursday (June 5) "to ensure that counterfeit copies of the band's first studio album in six years do not proliferate in the marketplace," the label said in a statement. "METALLICA unanimously approved the move, guaranteeing that fans get first crack at hearing the acclaimed disk the way the band intended: Loud and unadulterated."

Traditionally, record labels release new albums on Tuesdays. Last year, Interscope — citing similar piracy concerns — broke step by releasing EMINEM's "The Eminem Show" on Sunday, May 26, instead of its originally planned Tuesday, June 4, release date, and the label made a similar move earlier this year by releasing 50 CENT's debut set, "Get Rich of Die Tryin'", on Thursday, Feb. 6, instead of Tuesday, Feb. 11.

Find more on

Prev More News Next

Comments Disclaimer And Information

BLABBERMOUTH.NET uses the Facebook Comments plugin to let people comment on content on the site using their Facebook account. The comments reside on Facebook servers and are not stored on BLABBERMOUTH.NET. To comment on a BLABBERMOUTH.NET story or review, you must be logged in to an active personal account on Facebook. Once you're logged in, you will be able to comment. User comments or postings do not reflect the viewpoint of BLABBERMOUTH.NET and BLABBERMOUTH.NET does not endorse, or guarantee the accuracy of, any user comment. To report spam or any abusive, obscene, defamatory, racist, homophobic or threatening comments, or anything that may violate any applicable laws, use the "Report to Facebook" and "Mark as spam" links that appear next to the comments themselves. To do so, click the downward arrow on the top-right corner of the Facebook comment (the arrow is invisible until you roll over it) and select the appropriate action. You can also send an e-mail to blabbermouthinbox(@)gmail.com with pertinent details. BLABBERMOUTH.NET reserves the right to "hide" comments that may be considered offensive, illegal or inappropriate and to "ban" users that violate the site's Terms Of Service. Hidden comments will still appear to the user and to the user's Facebook friends. If a new comment is published from a "banned" user or contains a blacklisted word, this comment will automatically have limited visibility (the "banned" user's comments will only be visible to the user and the user's Facebook friends).