Metallica’s ’72 Seasons’ Tops Charts With Biggest Week for a Rock Album This Decade

Metallica’s 72 Seasons debuts atop multiple Billboard charts dated April 29, including the Top Rock & Alternative Albums survey.

In its first tracking week (April 14-20), Seasons earned 146,000 equivalent album units, according to Luminate. Of that sum, 134,000 units were via album sales.

It’s Metallica’s fifth No. 1 on Top Rock & Alternative Albums, which began in 2006. The rockers first ruled with Death Magnetic in 2008 and then with 2016’s Hardwired… to Self-Destruct (the band’s last proper LP prior to Seasons) and 2020’s S&M2 with the San Francisco Symphony, along with a first week at No. 1 in 2021 for 1991’s Metallica upon its 30th anniversary.

The new set’s 146,000-unit start marks the best single-week sum on Top Rock & Alternative Albums this decade. It’s the biggest since Tool’s Fear Inoculum soared in with 270,000 units on the Sept. 14, 2019, ranking.

Seasons is also Metallica’s fifth No. 1 on both Top Rock Albums and Top Hard Rock Albums.

The set bows at No. 1 on Top Album Sales with its 134,000-unit sales count, becoming Metallica’s eighth leader dating to 1991’s self-titled album. On Vinyl Albums, it’s likewise No. 1 thanks to 43,000 first-week vinyl copies sold, marking the group’s sixth champ, tying the band with The Beatles and Jack White for the second-most, after Taylor Swift with nine.

On the all-genre, mult-metric Billboard 200, Seasons debuts at No. 2, behind Morgan Wallen’s One Thing at a Time, which earned 166,000 units. The band adds its 12th top 10 on the chart, a run that began with …And Justice for All in 1988.

Concurrently, multiple songs from Seasons reach Billboard song charts, with the entire album’s tracklist infusing Hot Hard Rock Songs. It’s led by the title track and current radio single, which leaps 12-2 thanks to 2.7 million radio audience impressions, 2.4 million official U.S. streams and 1,000 downloads sold. “Shadows Follow” is next at No. 6 (1.8 million streams).

Twelve songs at once on Hot Hard Rock Songs is the most since the chart’s 2020 inception, surpassing Deftones‘ 10 songs on the Oct. 10, 2020, ranking.

“72 Seasons” jumps 8-6 on the latest Mainstream Rock Airplay survey. It’s Metallica’s 26th top 10, placing the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers in a tie with Van Halen for the sixth-most since the chart began in 1981. Preceding single “Lux Æterna” reigned for 11 weeks beginning in December, while fellow teaser song “Screaming Suicide” (not promoted to radio) spent one week on the tally at No. 40 in February.