Kerry King's pedalboard and set list from Slayer's 2006 tour.

We're privy to a lot of information here at Guitar World HQ, among them the sales figures for just about every album on the market. Since the general public rarely gets to see how one albums stacks up against another in terms of actual sales, I decided to share some of that info with you here.

Of course, the big news right now is that Metallica's Death Magnetic, in only three days of release, has already sold just shy of half a million copies, which is definitely more than many of us here in the office expected (aside from Editor in Chief Brad Tolinski, who won our inter-office Death Magnetic first-week-sales competition). By comparison, St. Anger sold just a little over 418,000 in its first few days of release back in May 2003.

What's interesting when you look at the top hard music albums sales figures for the week is how a new album will fuel sales of catalog albums. For example, with Death Magnetic now out, sales of pretty much all Metallica albums are up. The Black Album sold another 9100 copies last week (bringing the total to an unreal 15.2 million), ...And Justice for All and Master of Puppets each moved roughly 6500 pieces, Ride the Lightning 4900 copies and Kill 'Em All 2900 copies. Those are amazing numbers for records that are decades old. AC/DC is another good example of a new release driving back catalog sales. With Black Ice coming out on Oct. 16, interest in the Aussie rockers is huge again. Last week, Back in Black sold a staggering 11000 copies, High Voltage 4900, Highway to Hell 4200, Razor's Edge 3500 and For Those About to Rock 2800.

Some other figures of note include Slipknot's All Hope Is Gone continuing to sell well, with another 75000 copies moved for a grand total of 367,000 since its Aug. 26 release...not bad for a band with little-to-no mainstream appeal. DragonForce's Ultra Beatdown, on the other hand, has only sold 40,000 copies since its release the same day as All Hope Is Gone...quite a difference. On another sad note, Judas Priest's Nostradamus has sold only 92000 records since coming out in June....though pretty much everyone knew that a conceptual double-album like that wasn't going to fly off shelves.

The debut album from former Korn guitarist Brian "Head" Welch, Save Me from Myself, sold 7800 copies its first week out. Motörhead's Motorizer sold 2600 last week for a total of 12000 so far. Bullet for My Valentine's Scream Aim Fire moved another 2000 copies for a total of 223,000. Atreyu's Lead Sails Paper Anchor sold another 1500 for 278,000 total. Trapt's Only Through the Pain sold 3500 for a total of 57000 so far.

Anyway, I could go on spouting numbers for days, but I'll stop there. Figured you'd find it as interesting as I do.

JK

Production run limited to 50