METALLICA‘s latest studio album, “Hardwired… To Self-Destruct”, debuted at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 chart, having shifted 291,000 equivalent album units in the week ending November 24.
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).
See more details at Billboard.com
Hardwired… to Self-Destruct was released as a double album on November 18, 2016 by their vanity record label Blackened Recordings. It is their first studio album in eight years following Death Magnetic (2008), marking the longest gap between two studio albums in the band’s career. It is also their first studio album not to feature songwriting contributions from Kirk Hammett since he joined the band in 1983, and their first studio album released through Blackened.
