There’s roughly forty eight hours to go before the weekly chart show on BBC Radio One rattles off the UK’s top forty singles and albums for the week. This week, there is a very good chance of a very rare event occuring: A metal band going to number one in the UK album chart. In recent years, despite the masses of quality metal albums released, only giants of the genre such as Metallica, Iron Maiden and most recently Black Sabbath have managed to achieve this feat.
Now, with their brand new album Hail To The King (released on Monday through Warner Bros Records), Avenged Sevenfold have a huge chance to join that exclusive club. At time of reporting, Avenged were about 3,000 copies ahead of their nearest contender, Naughty Boy’s Hotel Cabana album, but Avenged Sevenfold’s mid-week lead has been slashed substantially (still, well done to all of you that rushed out to buy Hail To The King early this week or pre-ordered it).
Considering Metal albums getting to number one in the UK album chart are about as frequent as Arsenal transfers in the most recent football transfer window, this is something of a plea from us: If you’re an Avenged Sevenfold fan, go out and buy the album. If you’re a metal fan with a passing like for them, still go and buy the album. All of us in the metal community know that we need bands to supplement the usual suspects (the likes of Metallica, Maiden, Slipknot, Rammstein) at metal’s top table and a UK number one album would go a long way towards helping Avenged Sevenfold join that exclusive club. Whether you’re a fan of them or not, it can only be good for metal in the UK as a whole.
Still not convinced? Check out the lead single from Hail To The King, that might persuade you to part with your hard earned cash. We’ll be back to report on whether Avenged secure that elusive number one slot on Sunday! You can also check out details of Avenged’s forthcoming UK tour with Five Finger Death Punch right here.
Want to purchase Hail To The King? Here’s some links to do so:
iTunes – Standard Version
iTunes – Deluxe Version
Amazon – Deluxe Version
