If you read our review of Super Collider or listened to this week's Livecast, you know that we are not such big fans of the latest Megadeth release. Turns out, neither are Megadeth fans.
The Billboard numbers came in and while the good news is that the album came in at #6 on the Billboard charts, which is their highest showing since Youthanasia in 1994, the numbers tell a different story. Super Collider only sold 29,000 records in it's first week, which while a great number for a band with maybe a few releases under it's belt, for a band like Megadeth, that has to be a disappointment. To put things in perspective, Megadeth's last release, Th1rt3en sold 42,000 copies, nearly double what Super Collider sold.
What should make matters worse is that Super Collider seemingly had a much larger budget than Th1rt3en with Mustaine bragging that his new label spent as much on one photo shoot as their previous label spent on all the music videos for Thr1rt3en. That means Dave has a hearty budget to pay back his new label now.
I feel like there will be excuses made for why the record didn't perform so well like the economy and lack of people buying records, but I call bullshit on those excuses. Any time Mustaine has been in the news lately, it's rarely about the music. He has eroded his fanbase by constantly talking. Oh, and practically everybody panned Super Collider as a terrible release.
Slightly related, let's spotlight how dwindling record sales are in general, Megadeth's Youthanasia had to sell 143,000 copies to come in the #6 position in 1994. The top selling album this week, Queens of the Stone Age's …Like Clockwork only sold 91,000 copies.
