Metallica Edges Ne-Yo, Nelly To Remain No. 1

Katie Hasty, N.Y.
Metallica's "Death Magnetic" holds tight at No. 1 on The Billboard 200 for a second week after its first full frame at retail. The Warner Bros. set sold 337,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan; it debuted with 490,000 last week after just three days of sales thanks to an off-cycle Friday release. Starting right behind at No. 2 is Ne-Yo's "Year of the Gentleman" with 250,000. The Def Jam effort comes on the heels of two No. 1 bows for the artist: 2006 debut "In My Own Words" (301,000) and 2007's "Because of You" (251,000). New single "Miss Independent" continues to climb the Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs tally, moving 16-5 in this latest frame, while first single "Closer" sits at No. 7 on the Hot 100. Nelly's "Brass Knuckles" (Derrty/Universal Motown), the rapper's first studio set since 2004, enters at No. 3 on The Billboard 200 with 84,000. Four years ago, he dropped two separate albums on the same day -- "Suit" and "Sweat" - which debuted at Nos. 1 and 2 with 396,000 and 342,000, respectively.In its 50th week on the chart, Kid Rock's "Rock N Roll Jesus" (Top Dog/Atlantic) drops 3-4 on a 15% decline to 64,000 copies.Hootie & the Blowfish frontman Darius Rucker debuts at No. 5 on The Billboard 200 and No. 1 on Top Country Albums with the Capitol Nashville project "Learn to Live," with 60,000. On Hot Country Songs, his single "Don't Think I Don't Think About It" hits No. 1 this week. This marks the second week in a row a singer best known from another genre crosses over to hit No. 1 on the Top Country Albums chart, following last week's penthouse debut for Jessica Simpson's "Do You Know."
oung Jeezy's "The Recession" (Def Jam) falls 2-6 on The Billboard 200 with 60,000, a 33% sales decline. DJ Khaled notches his third straight top 15 album as "We Global" (We the Best/Def Jam) enters at No. 7 with 49,000. His first two charting albums -- 2006's "Listennn: The Album" and 2007's "We the Best" -- debuted and peaked at Nos. 12 and 8, respectively.Buckcherry earns its best sales week ever and highest charting album as "Black Butterfly" (Eleven Seven Music/Atlantic) opens at No. 8 with 47,000. Previously, the rock band went as far as No. 39 with its last album "15," and had never sold more than 26,000 in a single week with any release. But "15" wound up spending 126 weeks on The Billboard 200 and has sold 1.3 million copies to date.Lil Wayne's Cash Money effort "Tha Carter III" slips 9% in sales and descends 8-9 with 43,000 while the Game's "LAX" (Geffen) moves 7-10 with 42,000 (-16%). Other debuts this week include All That Remains' "Overcome" (Prosthetic/Razor & Tie, No. 16, 29,000), Raphael Saadiq's "The Way I See It" (Columbia, No. 19, 23,000), Avenged Sevenfold's "Live in the LBC & Diamond in the Rough" (Warner Bros., No. 24, 20,000) and Eli Young Band's "Jet Black & Jealous" (Universal South, No. 33, 15,000).At 6.92 million units, sales this week are up 1.1% from last week's sum and down a 16.5% from the same week last year.