Australian Album Chart: Metallica '72 Seasons' Is Number One

Metallica see their new album “72 Seasons” debut at No.1 in Australia this week, becoming their eighth chart-topping album locally.

“72 Seasons” (Blackened) becomes the 974th No.1 Album in Australia (1965 to 2023), the 825th for ARIA (1983 to 2023), the twelfth No.1 for 2023, the 605th to debut at the top, the third for Metallica’s own label Blackened and the band widens their gap between first and latest No.1 albums just under 32 years since their first self-titled ‘Black Album’ (1 week on August 25th, 1991), followed by six more albums in-between; “Load” (2 weeks from June 16th, 1996), “S&M” (1 week on Nov. 29th, 1999), “St. Anger” (2 weeks from June 16th, 2003), “Death Magnetic (Sept. 22nd, 2008), “Hardwired… to Self Destruct” (Nov, 28th, 2016) and their last “S&M2” (Sept. 7th, 2020), all logging a single week at the top, with the last two the other ‘Blackened’ sets.

With Metallica claiming their eighth No.1 Album, it moves them up to equal sixth on the tally board for ‘Most No.1 Albums (1965 to 2023)’ alongside Pearl Jam and Foo Fighters, while all up Metallica have now logged ten overall weeks at No.1, moving them up the list for ‘Accumulated Weeks at No.1: Albums (1965 to 2023) to now 55th (from 60th) with 10 weeks from 8 #1’s, just ahead of AC/DC (10 weeks from 6 #1’s), plus the band joins Midnight Oil and 5 Seconds of Summer for scoring two No.1 Albums and two weeks at the top during this decade.

“72 Seasons” is equal to 18 calendar years, with the album exploring the first 18 years of someone’s life and how they form themselves, and the album title is only the second to feature the word ‘season(s)’ in the title, the other was Matchbox 20 and “Mad Season” (5 weeks from May 29th, 2000), while we’ve had the numbers ‘7’ and ‘2’ at the top before, just the other way around, as the “Music from the Opening Ceremony of the 27th Olympiad” when held in Sydney logged three weeks at No.1 from September 25th, 2000. Overall this now becomes Metallica’s tenth Top 10 Album in Australia.

The new No.1 here also lands its first week at the top also in England, Ireland, New Zealand, Belgium, The Netherlands, Finland, Germany, Scotland, Sweden and atop our Vinyl Sales chart too. The “72 Seasons” set also becomes the 344th No.1 Album by an American Act (solo male or female, duo or group), plus the 425th by a Group (local or overseas), with Metallica knocking off a local group from last week in Cub Sport, this same chart-feat occured on October 3rd and 10th when 5SOS were superseded by Slipknot the following week (oz group followed by U.S. group).

Metallica could take out the No.1 spot in North America and Canada next week, but for now our No.2 (LW-3) set is both countries sixth-week holding No.1 Album for Morgan Wallen and “One Thing at a Time”, which also has the No.1 single in the country for a second week, “Last Night”, while it’s also the No.1 ARIA Country Albums this week too. Logging half-a-year (26 weeks) on the chart this week is Taylor Swift’s “Midnights” which rises back up two places to No.3 (No.6 Vinyl), while she has a second Top 10 entry this week as her “1989” set is up one spot to No.9 (No.3 Vinyl).

Luke Combs’ fourth album “Gettin’ Old” is on hold at No.4 in it’s fourth week on the chart (and within the Top 10), plus the album and Luke both score their first Top 10 single in Australia as his cover of “Fast Car” races up five places to land at No.7. The Weeknd has two Top 10 entries both rising one spot each, firstly “The Highlights” is up to No.5 and “Starboy” moves back up to No.10 (WI10-14), followed by a three place rise back up to No.6 for SZA’s “SOS”, which saw a remix of her “Kill Bill” tracked issued last week featuring Doja Cat, while the second and final non-mover within the Top 10 is “Harry’s House” for Harry Styles at No.7 (No.13 Vinyl).

The sixth studio album for local country brothers Tom and Nick Wolfe as The Wolfe Brothers called “Livin’ the Dream” debuts at No.8 this week (No.12 Vinyl), which also becomes their fourth Top 10 and sixth Top 20 entry locally, starting with “It’s On” (HP-18, late January 2013), “Nothin’ But Trouble” (HP-13, Sept. 2014), “This Crazy Life” (HP-10, June 2016), “Country Heart” (HP-9, April 2018), and their last was “Kids on Cassette” (HP-6, August 2021).

TOP 20:
The third to fifth Top 20 Albums for Taylor Swift also move up the chart this week, as she’s sitting just outside of the Top 10 at No.11 with “Lover” (LW-15), with two place climbs for both “Reputation” and “folklore” to No.16 and No.17 respectively. Morgan’s second album “Dangerous: The Double Album” is back up four spots to No.14, followed by a ten place surge to No.15 for Metro Boomin’ and “Heroes & Villains”, plus a six place jump to No.20 for Luke Combs’ debut set “This One’s for You”. The only declining album within the Top 20 is a six place slide to No.19 for Lana Del Rey’s latest “did you know…” set, while she also sits at No.63 with her older set “Born to Die” (No.19 Vinyl).

TOP 30:
The only album to survive within the Top 50 from last week’s Top 10 was the No.2 entry for NF and “Hope”, which drops down twenty places to No.22 this week, with other Top 30 declines being for “Fine Line” by Harry Styles (21 to No.24), “Trustfall” by Pink (22 to No.27), while The Weeknd logs a third straight week at No.30 with his “After Hours” set. Ed’s divide set is back up two places to No.21, while his new album should drop in two weeks time (minus), followed by rises for Maroon 5’s “Singles Collection” (29 to No.23), “AM” for Arctic Monkeys (31 to No.26; No.14 Vinyl) and back up three to No.29 is Luke Combs; second set “What You See Ain’t Always What You Get”.

TOP 40:
The 1975 are having a vinyl sales surge at the moment with their self-titled set (No.72 return; Vinyl 27 to No.20) “A Brief Inquiry into Online Relationships” (No.75 return), and “I Like it When You Sleep…” (No.80 return; Vinyl No.17), while their latest 2022 album “Being Funny in a Foreign Language” sees an eight place rise to No.31 this week. Miley Cyrus is down five places to No.33 with her latest set “Endless Summer Vacation”, while Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” jumps four to No.36, followed by a strange chart-feat at No.37; “Curtain Call 2” by Eminem is logging it’s 37th week within the chart by holding at No.37 for a third consecutive week.

TOP 50:
The sixth and seventh Taylor Swift Top 50 entries belong to “Red (TsV)” up four to No.41 and “evermore” rising six to No.43, while lower down she has an 8th and 9th Top 100 entry with “Fearless (TsV)” at No.66 and “Speak Now” at No.76. The trio boygenius drops only four places this week to No.42 with “the record” (No.9 Vinyl). Returning to the Top 50 are Green Day’s “GH’s: God’s Favourite Band” (53 to No.45), “Live in Buenos Aires” for Coldplay (54 to No.47), thanks to a new Top 20 single this week from his just issued collection is Post Malone’s “Hollywood’s Bleeding” (65 to No.48) and “The Eminem Show” for Eminem (59 to No.50).

Luke Combs’ fourth and final Top 50 entry sees his third set “Growin’ Up” rise back up four places to No.46, while the “ABBA Studio Albums” collection is down two to No.49 and scoring its half-year (26 weeks) within the Top 100. The three big dropouts from last weeks upper-end of the chart sees last weeks No.1 set for Cub Sport and “Jesus at the Gay Bar” leave the Top 100 from the top spot, “Meteora (20th Ann.Ed.)” for Linkin Park (8 to No.97) and Frenzal Rhomb with “The Cup of Pestilence” (leaves T100 from No.12).

FURTHER NEW ENTRY:
* #44 (LP#59) – Ready, Steady, Wiggle! – The Wiggles (ABC Music) is the 59th album for the local kids entertainers since they issued their first material in 1991, first charting localling in 1997, with this new set now becoming their 28th chart entry (22 studio, 4 compilations, 2 tribute albums), while they last charted with their first and only No.1 set “ReWiggled” (1 week on March 21st, 2022).

HP = Highest Position

LW = Last Week
WI10 – Weeks in Top 10

*ARIA Chart info is based on sales for the week from the 14th to the 20th of April 2023

Written, Compiled and Researched by Gavin Ryan.

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