Yes, this pleases the Dark Lord and Master.
What a time to be alive. From a frightening Leukemia diagnosis to a critical success, Behemoth’s return is like that of a phoenix. The much anticipated The Satanist not only completely fulfilled the hype, but it’s been selling like hotcakes. So much in fact, that it landed the band at #34 on the Billboard 200 album charts, the band’s highest charting debut ever.
From the press release:
It is with great pride that we officially announce that the album has debuted at #34 on the Billboard Top 200 charts, 21 spots higher than the band’s previous album, “Evangelion.” In Canada, the album debuted at #46 on the Top 200 current albums chart. The complete listing of “The Satanist” North American chart debuts has been posted below.
BEHEMOTH U.S. Chart Numbers:
Billboard Top 200 – #34
Top Overall Albums – #34
Independent Albums – #6
Current Hard Music – #4
Overall Hard Music – #4
Overall Core Rock – #8
Top Current Rock – #9
iTunes Metal – #3
iTunes Rock – #4
iTunes Top Albums – #24
BEHEMOTH Canadian Chart Numbers:
Top 200 Current Albums – #46
Current Digital Albums – #36
Hard Music Chart – #5
iTunes Metal – #1
iTunes Rock – #2
iTunes Top Albums – #19
Every artist’s goal is to continue to top their previous efforts, but rarely is it ever done in such a convincing fashion. Behemoth front man Nergal reacts to the news: “This news just knocked us out while getting ready to hit the stage in Lyon. It’s actually unheard of… I don’t think that ANY black or death metal artist reached a higher position on Billboard ever! We are eternally grateful to our fans worldwide for making “The Satanist” the game changer in Behemoth’s history! We’d like to show our deepest respect to Metal Blade and our manager, Chuck Andrews, for working their asses off for us and making this all happen. It’s fuckin’ surreal and we can’t even describe how proud we are. With “The Satanist” we are making history here! Hail Freedom! Hail Satan!”
It’s good to know that a lot of people out there are still buying extreme music, and that the fanbase has enough buying power to land acts so high on the charts. Unfortunately, shitty things still tend to land the charts — Now 49 is #1 this week and For Today‘s newest pile outranked Behemoth by two spots — but it’s beyond cool to see an album called The Satanist selling quite well.
Help keep The Satanist on the charts for another week and buy the album through Metal Blade Records.
– JR