Australian Charts: Metallica 'S&M2' Debuts At No 1

Metallica scores their seventh No.1 album in Australia this week as their tenth live set “S&M2” with the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra debuts at the top this week.

“S&M2” becomes the 890th No.1 Album in Australia (1965 to 2020), the 740th for ARIA (1983 to 2020), the 527th to debut in the top spot, and the 24th that has debuted at the top this year, while for 2020 this is the 28th No.1 album, and for their record label ‘Blackened’ this is its second No.1, as the bands 2016 set “Hardwired… to Self Destruct” (28th of Nov., 2016) was the other one for one week.

Last week The Killers became the first band to score a No.1 Album in Australia within the past three decades, 2000’s, 2010’s and now 2020’s, well this week Metallica becomes the first band to log a No.1 album within the past FOUR decades, as the bands self titled “black album” from 1991 debuted at the top 29 years and one week ago (25th of August, 1991), and below is a list of their previous No.1 sets…

25-Aug-1991 – Metallica (1 week)
16-Jun-1996 – Load (2 weeks)
29-Nov-1999 – S&M (1 week)
16-Jun-2003 – St. Anger (2 weeks)
22-Sep-2008 – Death Magnetic (1 week)
28-Nov-2016 – Hardwired… to Self Destruct (1 week)
07-Sep-2020 – S&M2 (1 week so far)

With this new set becoming the seventh No.1 album for Metallica, the band becomes equal sixth on the list for ‘Accumulated No.1 Albums; 1965 to 2020’ alongside Rod Stewart, Elton John, The Twelfth Man, The Rolling Stones and The Foo Fighters. And on the list for ‘Accumulated Weeks at No.1: Albums’ they rise from 83rd to 76th, just behind Pearl Jam (9 weeks from 8 #1’s). Of course there has been a previous “S&M” at No.1 as an album title, the bands first from almost 21 years ago, 29th of November, 1999, for a one week stay. The new No.1 album is also the 315th for an American Act (solo, duo, group, male or female) and the eleventh for 2020, while for groups (local or overseas), this becomes the 394th, and also the 13th for this year. The album has also landed at No.1 this week in Belgium, The Netherlands, Germany and Scotland (so far).

It was a race to the top this week between metal and a new mama, as Katy Perry not only gave birth to her first chart (Daisy Dove Bloom) last week, but also her sixth studio album called “Smile”, which comes in at No.2 this week to become her fifth Top 10 album in Australia, as all but her first album have peaked at No.1 or No.2, her debut set “One of the Boys” made it to No.11. This new entry peaks at the same position her 2017 set “Witness” also came in at, which came in behind Ed Sheeran’s third album “÷ (Divide)” (TW-16).

The longest running No.1 album for the year in the four week reigning Taylor Swift “folklore” album is down one spot this week to No.3, followed by two stable and two swapping albums. The two Top 10 posthumous albums in the Juice WRLD set “Legends Never Die” and the current NZ and Canadian No.1 album for Pop Smoke with “Shoot for the Stars, Aim for the Moon” remain on hold at No.4 and No.5 respectively. The two long running Top 10 albums for the year swap places at No.6 and No.7, with Harry Styles’ “Fine Line” (T10 38 wks) back up one spot to No.6 and swapping with the Billie Eilish set “When We All Fall Asleep, Where Do We Go?” (T10 73 weeks) down one spot to No.7.

The remainder of the Top 10 are all debuts, as coming in at No.8 is the sixth studio album for local singer/songwriter Josh Pyke called “Rome”. It becomes his first new entry since his 2017 “The Best of + B-Sides and Rarities” set from July 2017 hit No.80 and overall it’s his ninth albums chart entry (6 studios, one live, one best of, one EP) within the Top 100 and all of his studio albums have now peaked within the Top 10.

Another local act debuts at No.9 in Melbourne punk band Private Function who sees their second studio album “Whose Line is it Anyway?” coming in at No.9 this week, the bands first chart entry, as their first set “St. Anger” from 2019 didn’t chart. Then a third successive local enters at No.10; Diesel with “Sunset Suburbia”, which is the blues guitarists 14th solo album, and by coming in at No.10 it’s now his fifth overall Top 10 album (1 with The Injectors and four solo), and his first since his third solo album “Solid State Rhyme” which debuted and spent two weeks at No.10 in late November of 1994.

UP:
The two Luke Combs Top 20 entries again swap heights this week, as his latest second set “What You See is What You Get” is back up three places to No.14, leapfrogging over his first set “This One’s for You” which is stable at No.15. Elton John’s “Diamonds” collection is back up two spots to No.18, with other rising collections being for INXS (35 to No.32), The Foo Fighters (59 to No.46) and Queen (70 to No.48).
The next rising album occurs at No.31, as the latest Lady Gaga set “Chromatica” jumps back up fourteen places to No.31, helped by her wins this past week at the MTV VMA’s for 2020, and doing a heap of costume changes and performances, each with a matching mask. Also jumping back into the Top 50 this week is the 1988 Guns N’ Roses breakout album “Appetite for Destruction” (78 to No.44) and the 1978 Fleetwood Mac set “Rumours” (54 to No.47).

DOWN:
Five albums leave the Top 10 this week, but only two live for a second week within the Top 50. The Killers No.1 entry from last week “Imploding the Mirage” drops down ten spots this week to land at No.11, after a single week within the Top 10, while local act Hooligan Hefs sees their EP “Living in Sin” (HP-9) tumble down twenty-four spots to No.33. Falling into the lower fifty this week are three more of last week’s Top 10 new entries, Troye Sivan’s EP “In a Dream” (HP-3), the compilation album “Cannot Buy My Soul: The Songs of Kev Carmody (expanded edition)” (HP-6) and Tim McGraw with “Here on Earth” (HP-10).
Soundtracks slipping down are for ‘Hamilton’ (12 to No.17), ‘The Greatest Showman’ (24 to No.27) and the Queen biopic for ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ (stable at No.38). The third Post Malone album “Hollywood’s Bleeding” is celebrating its one year on the charts by dropping down six places to No.19, while he also falls with “Beerbong’s & Bentley’s” (26 to No.30) and “Stoney” (43 to No.50).
Dua Lipa’s “Future Nostalgia” drops down six to No.20, while her self-titled first set is down three to No.39. Lime Cordiale drop down six to No.24 with “14 Steps to a Better You”, while the two older Taylor Swift sets both drop down three spots for “Lover” (23 to No.26) and “1989” (34 to No.37).
“?” for XXXTentation slips down five to No.34, “Astroworld” for Travis Scott drops seven to No.35, Polo G’s “G O A T” set dives nine spots to No.40, while Juice WRLD’s “Goodbye & Good Riddance” has an eight place drop to No.49. Both the Eminem (33 to No.41) and Maroon 5 (32 to No.42) best of sets drop down the charts, while it’s a one place drop to No.45 for the Cold Chisel collection.

FURTHER NEW ENTRIES:
* #12 (LP#3) – Energy by Disclosure (Island) is the third studio album for the English duo, and their first NOT to land within the Top 10, while their fourth overall chart entry, as they’ve previously charted with “Settle” (HP-5, 2013) and “Caracal” (HP-2, 2015), but they did manage to keep up the single named album titles for their studio sets. They also hit No.80 in 2016 with the EP “Moog for Love”.

* #21 (LP#8) – Si Vis Pacem, Para Bellum by Seether (Fantasy/Concord) translates as “If You Want Peace, Prepare for War” and of the six studio albums to chart locally for the South African rock band, this is now their highest charted set, beating the No.29 peak of their seventh set and last entry “Poison the Parish” (HP-29, May 2017). They first charted here with their second set “Disclaimer II” (HP-38) in 2004, and all six of their entries here have landed or peaked within the Top 50.

* #23 (LP#3) – Batflowers by Washington (Island Aust.) is the first new album for local singer and songwriter Megan Washington in almost six years (mid-Sept 2014 was her last release), and her fourth Top 50 placement (3 studios and 1 EP), having previously charted with the albums “I Believe You Liar” (LP#1, HP-3, 2010) and “There There” (LP#2, HP-5, 2014).

* #28 (LP#1) – Nyaaringu by Miiesha (EMI Aust.) is the debut album for the local indigenous artist from the Queensland area of Woorabinda, who recently won ‘New Talent of the Year’ at the National Indigenous Music Awards for 2020.

* #36 (LP#3) – Use Me by PVRIS (Warner) becomes the second entry here of three issued albums for the American rock band, who last charted on this week in September of 2017 with their second set “All We Know of Heaven, All We Need of Hell” (LP#2, HP-12).

* #43 (LP#1) – B4 the Storm by Internet Money (Internet Money/TenThousand Projects) is an album of tracks from the record label Internet Money, which is run by Danny Snodgrass Jr. and Taz Taylor, and it’s not only a label, but also a YouTube channel, production house, and place for beats and producers to come together and make music. This album contains vocals and tracks from Future, Gunna, Trippie Redd, Juice WRLD, 24K GOLDN and The Kid Laroi among them.

Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.

Noise11.com