Congratulations to Babymetal on their strongest album performance in the United States yet. The kawaii metal group became the first Asian band to hit No. 1 on Billboard's Top Rock Albums chart with the release of their third full length, Metal Galaxy, which came out on Oct. 11.

In its first week, the record accounted for 28,000 equivalent album units sold, 27,000 of them being represented by physical sales with the other 1,000 attributed to streaming. These numbers are a massive improvement on the success of Babymetal's previous effort, 2016's Metal Resistance, which sold just under 13,000 copies in its first week.

Regarding the big, big chart — the Billboard 200 — Babymetal made another incredible leap from No. 39 (Metal Resistance) to No. 13 (Metal Galaxy), their highest-ever position on the historic chart. To put things into an even sharper perspective, Babymetal's self-titled 2014 debut album, which featured the viral hit "Gimme Chocolate" that essentially launched the band's career, peaked at No. 187.

Part of this success is certainly attributed to the vacuum that Babymetal exist in. There's no other metal group that possess this type of sound. "I’m really happy that I get the opportunity to challenge myself," Moametal recently told Loudwire about the group's originality. "By doing that our audience sees that and enjoys it so that makes me even more happy. That’s why I want to keep challenging."

Another notch in Babymetal's huge 2019 was their first-ever headlining arena show at The Forum in Los Angeles.

See Babymetal in the 50 Most Important Metal Bands in the 21st Century

 

 

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