According to Billboard.biz, two official days of opening sales were enough to drive METALLICA's "Death Magnetic" (Vertigo/Universal) to the top of European Top 100 Albums. The LP, released last Friday (Sept. 12), goes straight to the summit in the United Kingdom, where it was leaked for early release 24 and in some cases even 48 hours ahead of the official launch. Sales there had reached 75,000 by the end of Saturday, while "Magnetic" also arrives at No. 1 in France, Denmark, Portugal and the Belgian region of Flanders, No. 2 in neighboring Wallony and Spain, No. 3 in Ireland, and climbs 7-1 in Norway.
"Death Magnetic" is on track to sell around 200-250,000 copies in the United States in its first full week of release, according to Hits Daily Double, the companion web site of music industry tip sheet HITS. It will battle it out for the No. 1 position on The Billboard 200 chart with hit songwriter/performer NE-YO, whose "Year of the Gentleman" is said to have "a slight edge" right now for the top of next week's chart.
METALLICA is the first group to see five of its albums bow at No. 1 on The Billboard 200. Previously, the act was tied with THE BEATLES, U2 and the DAVE MATTHEWS BAND, with four each. The group's latest LP, "Death Magnetic", which sold nearly half a million copies in the United States in just a three-day sales window, is also METALLICA's fifth consecutive studio album to debut at No. 1 and its seventh release to start with more than 300,000 since 1991, when Nielsen SoundScan began tracking data.
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