Has Nuclear Blast ever had a band sell a Gold Record?

[Pascal79]

I don't know if Nightwish or Children of Bodom ever sold over 500,000 copies when they were on Nuclear Blast Records but I highly doubt it. Could it be possible that Testament will reach this plateau with their upcoming album or am I being way to optimistic. Okay maybe that's a little far fetched but I do think they will sell around 400,000 copies world wide with this new album.

If this isn't the most anticipated thrash metal album of all time then I don't know what is? The metal community has been starving for a new Testament album for 8 years and Alex Skolnick is back for good. They have been touring since 2005 with the original members and it's been a huge success and I've never seen the fans go so nuts before for Testament. The momentum they have steered up for this album is insane and Nuclear Blast will do a wonderful job of promoting and marketing the album. I see the album reaching the same heights as albums like Practice What you Preach and the Ritual in terms of copies sold. If you think about it, Demonic sold well over 200,000 units on a shitty record label that went bankrupt and had distribution problems. That ain't gonna happen this time around!

 

[Sole Reaper]

It's funny you bring this up Pascal79. I was thinking about it last week. What about Dimmu Borgir? I thought Dimmu was the first NB band to sell 100,000 copies in the states. It would be cool if Testament ends up doing more. I think the top metal bands in the states are lucky to hit 200,000. I think it's gonna be hard to do, not impossible, but difficult.

I'm real curious as to how NB will market Testament. A lot of people don't know the band is together. It's one thing to put them in metal mags and websites, but if they want more sales their going to have to branch out a bit further. One thing is for certain, the sooner they get started the better.

 

[Pascal79]

Of course, how can I forget about Dimmu. They've had huge success with Nuclear Blast. I think Testament has the potential to reach 100,000+ in the States. I know they did go well over 100,000 with Low in the U.S. I'm not sure about The Gathering but that's mainly because of Spitfire who did a terrible job of promoting the album. It really all depends on how much the label is willing to spend on marketing the album. The potential is obviously there with Testament. We'll have to wait and see what happens. I just hope fans get off their ass and buy the album instead of downloading of the net. I do feel that the numbers will be strong in Europe, South America, Asia, and Australia since the band has done a shit load of touring there.

I think it would wise for them to release a song video. The last one they had was Low in 1994. It's time to get the band some exposure on TV instead of only magazines and the internet.

 

[HailMary]

Uber-research:

Nuclear Blast Records Artists with sales that are good.

Dimmu Borgir:
In Sorte Diaboli (2007) - 140,000
Deatch Cult Armageddon (2002) - 100,000 + (First album by Nuclear Blast to sell over 100,000 in the US Alone)

In Flames:
Come Clarity (2006) - 350,000 (Worldwide) (This was only released through NB in Europe)

These were the closest to gold I could find really

 

[Nebulous]

As long as Testament release another awsome album, Nuclear Blast's job will be made alot easier. The (metal) press should jump right onto this album as soon as it's released. All NB have to do is make sure the metal press get the album to do reviews of it.

 

[one man]

Well, I think the times when metal bands would sell 400.000 records in the U.S. are gone, but I still believe that with good promotion (at least two professionally shot videos are a must! one slower and one faster song) they could get close to that status. To top the PWYP, TR or SoB sales the label should create a sort of Testament fashion, convince young people it's cool to listen to them (how stupid it wouldn't sound)- that's the only way they could reach the status of these popular new metal bands without turning their music into mainstream stuff. But videos are essential, as well as radio appearance and even TV shows with the members.
Speaking of Low's sales, I believe that when I last chcecked (like 4 years ago) it was at least 110 000, perhaps more (it could have been even 200 000 as in 1994 it was #122 in the Billboard rank- way lower than the previous records but still pretty high). As for Demonic, I believe Eric once said they'd sold more than 200 000 copies of it despite the label break up, but I think it was rather worldwide than just the States, for I can't imagine it selling better than Low.
Around 3 years ago The Gathering was something like 55 000 copies sold or something close to that. Nothing very impressive, but very decent in the hard time for metal and no videos.
I' d like to see some updated figures for all of their albums- both in the U.S. and worldwide as well as the estimated pre-soundscan numbers. I think it would be cool to know, as I've always been interested in record sales.
I hope that with the new one they'll have great marketing that (along with the great music, which I'm confident about) will gain them due publicity, recognition they deserve and big sales.

 

[Sole Reaper]

There's a guy on the Megadeth board that puts up sales numbers. I think The Gathering record is around 60,000 now. Kinda pathetic when so many people talk about it being a great album and that Dave Lombardo played on it.

Several good points have been brought up with the record needing to have good songs, with good production. A couple of music videos, and tons of press for interviews and reviews. A street team wouldn't hurt. Great cover art will help a little, but since so many people download and don't buy, that will hurt a lot. I think the other big thing will be finding the cd's in stores. It's one thing to promote the hell out of it, the second will be having it in stores for people to find. The thing that pisses me off is that for a lot of metal bands you'll only find a couple of copies in stores unless the band is huge. Recent example is both Obituary and Divine Heresy. Both cd's came out the same day and when I went to Best Buy they only had 2 copies of each record, and I couldn't find them. They weren't marked, but filed in behind other artists. It hurts because at least where I live there are no more mom and pop type stores to get decent metal releases.

 

[Pascal79]

Yes 60,000 units sold for The Gathering in the States alone. Those are solid numbers for this era of metal. Don't forget that spitfire didn't do anything to help sell this album. The album literally sold itself through word of mouth and solid touring by the band. This is why I'm very optimistic about the new album being released on Nuclear Blast because they are a true metal label that know how to market. I think the last good record label that Testament had was probably Megaforce records. Atlantic, Mayhem, and Spitfire all sucked ass!

Also, I think the fans are much more interested in the numbers game than the band is because in reality the band probably doesn't care whether the album sells 300,000 or 400,000 world wide. Metal bands today make money on tours and merchandise. It's a tough business and it's amazing how Testament has survived with all those bad record labels. The band deserves a shit load of credit.

They've been rewarded with the #1 metal label -> Nuclear Blast!

 

[Razorhead95]

I think that Testament will probably sell more CD's too if they tour with bands that are popular with kids today, like Killswitch Engage and Soilwork, or Lamb of God.

 

[one man]

Good point, Razorhead. Especially that Chuck, Alex and Eric appreciate a lot of these new bands and talk about them in interviews pretty often.

 

[Sole Reaper]

They probably will tour with Soilwork at some point. I believe both bands like each other and are on the same label now so it would seem inevitable.