Testament Record Sales

Necroshine95 said:
In the U.S? That ain't bad at all. Thanks, and knowing Overkill Electric Age probably sold like mabye 20,000-25,000 max. I know Ironbound sold over 15,000 in its first month
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Yep, in the US.

I agree with your estimations on Electric Age. If you could find a way to search through the xls files on the website I linked, you'd probably find the last week it was included on the indie charts which should tell how it continued to sell after the first few weeks. Maybe the search could be done for Formation too.
 
Sole Reaper said:
Now that the tour started hopefully sales go up.
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I'm pretty sure they will, even though there won't be to many people totally new to their music in attendance. But probably many of them haven't bought the album yet and may finally realize it's high time to do it (the "fans" count on their Facebook is still increasing and has exceeded 840.000 people). I hope the copies bands sell on tour in their merch booths do count.
 
High Priest Of Evil said:
I'm sorry, I somehow overlooked that post. Please let me reply below:

1. No, I wasn't implying Overkill sells more in the US than Testament. I only said that a bigger part of their album is sold in the US than elsewhere, unlike Testament which sells a lot outside of the US too. This doesn't mean that Overkill outsells Testament in the US. I only referred to proportions not total numbers. For example if Overkill sells 100.000 copies of an album worldwide, 60.000 of which is in the US that doesn't mean that they outsell Testament which sells 400.000 albums worldwide, 160.000 of which is in the US. It does, however, mean that a bigger percentage of Overkill's albums is sold within the US (60%) than Testament's (40%). Obviously I've just made these numbers up as an example.

2. I've never seen those numbers anywhere. Do you have any links to sites where such amounts are mentioned. They seem completely out of place in my eyes. Why didn't they get any gold albums in any country if they sold 20 million albums worldwide. Besides, we all agree that Testament sells much more than Overkill, and Eric mentioned last year they only sold over 4 million albums (I don't know how accurate that is but it gives you a perspective). There's no way Overkill sold 5 times more than that (They would have been in line with Slayer and Megadeth and ahead of Anthrax in terms of popularity, which unfortunately is not true).

3. Here's the link to the OverKill forum: http://wreckingcrew.com/yabb2/YaBB.pl.

As for the Megadeth board - I've never been there. It was Sole Reaper that mentioned it (http://www.ultimatemetal.com/forum/testament/334366-has-nuclear-blast-ever-had-band-sell-gold-record.html#post6520561). I guess he could help you with the link.

Should you get any interesting info on any of these, please feel free to share it here.
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I have one here saying Overkill sold over 16 million WW
http://www.thrashhits.com/2012/08/l...fire-wet-nuns-london-100-club-09-august-2012/

And 2 saying The Years of Decay sold 4 million WW
http://www.aeglive.com/artists/view/1401/Overkill
http://ametalstateofmind.com/2012/01/26/themed-thursday-overkill/

Also I'd love to see the interview saying Testament sold over 4 million WW that would be VERY helpful to put up on Wiki
 
Both, actually. It's hard to find reliable sources for worldwide sales, except for the global charts if an album (like Dark Roots of Earth) has been included there (but that concerns only the first week). The most precise info comes from band members. If Blitz said they sold 1 million copies worldwide in 1997, that number could have doubled since then (maybe even trippled, but I doubt that). There is absolutely no way they could have sold 16 times more albums since 1997 than between 1985 and 1997, or to sell 4 million copies of a single album.
 
High Priest Of Evil said:
Both, actually. It's hard to find reliable sources for worldwide sales, except for the global charts if an album (like Dark Roots of Earth) has been included there (but that concerns only the first week). The most precise info comes from band members. If Blitz said they sold 1 million copies worldwide in 1997, that number could have doubled since then (maybe even trippled, but I doubt that). There is absolutely no way they could have sold 16 times more albums since 1997 than between 1985 and 1997, or to sell 4 million copies of a single album.
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I see what you're saying also Blitz said that FEEL THE FIRE sold 1 million copies WW as of 1997. I think it's very possible that Overkill sold 16 million personally and I think Testament sold more than just 4 million WW that's too small for them I can see that for Exodus though

http://prime-choice.com/mag/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=19&Itemid=2
Here's the one about Feel the Fire selling over 1 million WW
 
I'm sorry, but you're misinterpreting the 1 million info.

From the widely-recognized Under The Influence to the current From The Underground And Below, Overkill have been consistently writing and recording a unique blend of punk and metal, remaining true to their original inspiration presented on their debut album, 1984’s Feel The Fire. With collective worldwide sales of more than a million albums, Overkill are in a position of being widely recognized, but still “fighting it out with the rest of ‘em.”
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I'm not a native English speaker, but I'm sure the other users will confirm the second sentence clearly refers to Overkill's sales in general, not Feel the Fire sales.

On what basis do you think it is "very possible that Overkill sold 16 million"? That is absolutely nowhere near the truth. I'm sure the people on the Overkill forum will confirm that. I'm estimating that Testament has sold 3-4 times more albums than OverKill and 5 times more albums than Exodus. I agree that 4 millions WW for TestAmenT does seem underestimated, but there's no way even they could have sold 16 millions, let alone OverKill. I'm sorry to disappoint you, but let's not spread rumors.
 
High Priest Of Evil said:
I'm sorry, but you're misinterpreting the 1 million info.



I'm not a native English speaker, but I'm sure the other users will confirm the second sentence clearly refers to Overkill's sales in general, not Feel the Fire sales.

On what basis do you think it is "very possible that Overkill sold 16 million"? That is absolutely nowhere near the truth. I'm sure the people on the Overkill forum will confirm that. I'm estimating that Testament has sold 3-4 times more albums than OverKill and 5 times more albums than Exodus. I agree that 4 millions WW for TestAmenT does seem underestimated, but there's no way even they could have sold 16 millions, let alone OverKill. I'm sorry to disappoint you, but let's not spread rumors.
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I still think they're talking about Feel the Fire, plus there's like 5 or 6 others stating the 16 mil and YOD 4 mil. Some also have I Hear Black at 1.3 million WW so if ur interpretation is true, than they'd be contradicting each other. Also what makes you think they're exaggerated? Not accusing you of any crap just curious oh what might have drawn a potential red flag for you
 
Well, knowing their US numbers for some albums (see page 1 of this thread) I feel it's completely improbable that they sold 10-20 times more albums outside the US. Believe it or not, but with global sales of 16 million, they would have had quite a few gold records by now. Anyway, hopefully you can get some credible info at the wrecking crew board.
 
High Priest Of Evil said:
I'm sorry, but you're misinterpreting the 1 million info.



I'm not a native English speaker, but I'm sure the other users will confirm the second sentence clearly refers to Overkill's sales in general, not Feel the Fire sales.

On what basis do you think it is "very possible that Overkill sold 16 million"? That is absolutely nowhere near the truth. I'm sure the people on the Overkill forum will confirm that. I'm estimating that Testament has sold 3-4 times more albums than OverKill and 5 times more albums than Exodus. I agree that 4 millions WW for TestAmenT does seem underestimated, but there's no way even they could have sold 16 millions, let alone OverKill. I'm sorry to disappoint you, but let's not spread rumors.
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Your english is good, better than a lot of us Americans. As for record sales, we've talked about this before. Megadeth has sold roughly over 20 million worldwide. Including a couple of platinum records (meaning 1 million just in the U.S.). Testament has not had even a gold record (500,000, although it's possible but with Atlantic records...), there's no way that Overkill has sold that many. They have to be closer to Testament in sales but they were never as popular as them. Now in Europe I have no clue as to who was bigger. Overkill's popularity was biggest during the late eighties/early ninties (Years of Decay/Horrorscope), but they've been more "underground" than Testament. The best case for Overkill is that they've never stopped making records. Testament had about a 9 year lull, but that's been during the huge downloading era that we've been in for awhile now. Personally, I don't care who sold more, both are good bands and have stood the test of time.
 
High Priest Of Evil said:
Well, knowing their US numbers for some albums (see page 1 of this thread) I feel it's completely improbable that they sold 10-20 times more albums outside the US. Believe it or not, but with global sales of 16 million, they would have had quite a few gold records by now. Anyway, hopefully you can get some credible info at the wrecking crew board.
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For all we know both of em did lol they don't put alota sales/certifications out for Overkill or Testament.
 
They weren't bigger outside the US either. Until the recent 2 albums they only charted in Germany a few times (Under the Influence, Years of Decay, W.F.O., Killing Kind, From the underground, Necroshine, Killbox), whereas Testament's old albums hit the charts in Holland (Live at Eindhoven, New Order, Practice), Switzerland (Low), Sweden (New Order), Norway (Practice), UK (Practice, Souls), and Germany (New Order, Practice, Ritual, Gathering), if not more.

So the only country where Overkill could have sold more than Testament is Germany. Yet they don't have a single gold album there. That means none of their albums has shipped 100.000 copies there. So how could they reach 16 million copies of all the albums worldwide or 4 millions of the Years of Decay?

Anyway, I agree with Sole Reaper - both bands are great and I am thrilled to know they finally are touring together, even if I won't be able to witness any of the shows myself.
 
Sole Reaper said:
Your english is good, better than a lot of us Americans. As for record sales, we've talked about this before. Megadeth has sold roughly over 20 million worldwide. Including a couple of platinum records (meaning 1 million just in the U.S.). Testament has not had even a gold record (500,000, although it's possible but with Atlantic records...), there's no way that Overkill has sold that many. They have to be closer to Testament in sales but they were never as popular as them. Now in Europe I have no clue as to who was bigger. Overkill's popularity was biggest during the late eighties/early ninties (Years of Decay/Horrorscope), but they've been more "underground" than Testament. The best case for Overkill is that they've never stopped making records. Testament had about a 9 year lull, but that's been during the huge downloading era that we've been in for awhile now. Personally, I don't care who sold more, both are good bands and have stood the test of time.
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Megadeth sold 40 million lol. Also it's believed Practice What You Preach and The Ritual sold gold but the company never gave em it. And It's not super hard to believe Overkill sold more than Testament considering they made 6 more albums. Testament is bigger than Overkill in the U.S but Overkills bigger over in Europe (mostly in Germany and England) either way they're the two best Thrash bands and it's a crime that both of them sold less than 25 million
 
High Priest Of Evil said:
They weren't bigger outside the US either. Until the recent 2 albums they only charted in Germany a few times (Under the Influence, Years of Decay, W.F.O., Killing Kind, From the underground, Necroshine, Killbox), whereas Testament's old albums hit the charts in Holland (Live at Eindhoven, New Order, Practice), Switzerland (Low), Sweden (New Order), Norway (Practice), UK (Practice, Souls), and Germany (New Order, Practice, Ritual, Gathering), if not more.

So the only country where Overkill could have sold more than Testament is Germany. Yet they don't have a single gold album there. That means none of their albums has shipped 100.000 copies there. So how could they reach 16 million copies of all the albums worldwide or 4 millions of the Years of Decay?

Anyway, I agree with Sole Reaper - both bands are great and I am thrilled to know they finally are touring together, even if I won't be able to witness any of the shows myself.
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Don't forget, there's much more information out there on Testament than there is on Overkill for all we know they were in there too. And yeah I'm so glad to see them tour together\,,/ What I'd really love to see is a tour featuring both of them, Megadeth, Exodus, and Slayer
 
Necroshine95 said:
Don't forget, there's much more information out there on Testament than there is on Overkill
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Definitely. But don't you think there's a reason for that? And that reason, in my opinion, is that Testament was the bigger band in terms of sales from day one. There's no way Overkill outsells Testament in any country except for Germany (and that is not for sure). I will never believe they sold A HALF of what Testament did, despite having released 6 more albums.

But let's not speculate and wait 'til you get some info from the Overkill and Megadeth boards or maybe from the other sources you have contacted. Good luck with that.

In the meantime, since you're back to posting Wikipedia articles, I hope you'll find the time to supplement the DROE charting info like you said before. All the below is backed up with reliable sources so I'm guessing they won't have a problem with it.

High Priest Of Evil said:
Thanks a lot. The list on Wikipedia does not include the following countries:

Poland (here's the separate source, as the previous one I indicated does not contain it: http://c01d01-8l1a15upoh.zpavolis.cloud112.onyx.pl/listy/index.asp?idlisty=753&lang=/; it's confirmed also here by NB: http://www.nuclearblast.de/en/label/company/charts.html?artist_id=71065&year=all), where it debuted on #8.

Norway #11 (here are separate additional sources: http://lista.vg.no/artist/testament/album/dark-roots-of-earth/12691 and http://norwegiancharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Testament&titel=Dark+Roots+Of+Earth&cat=a)
Italy #27 (additional source: http://www.fimi.it/classifiche_result_artisti.php?anno=2012&mese=07&id=419)
Denmark #29 (additional sources: http://www.hitlisten.nu/ - choose week 31/2012 in the albums list; and http://danishcharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Testament&titel=Dark+Roots+Of+Earth&cat=a)
Czech Republic #45 (additional official source: http://www.ifpi.cz/hitparada/index.php?a=titul&hitparada=14&titul=150656&sec=ad60884af8c760c4a7aaea7fc327fe7f)
France #46 (additional source: http://lescharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Testament&titel=Dark+Roots+Of+Earth&cat=a )
Spain #57 (additional source: http://spanishcharts.com/showitem.asp?interpret=Testament&titel=Dark+Roots+Of+Earth&cat=a).

Additionally, according to this: http://www.oricon.co.jp/prof/artist/107042/ranking/cd_album/ it was on #56 in Japan.

As for Belgium - Flanders it debuted on #80, but since went up to #54.
Same for Belgium - Walloonia, where it started on #40 but peaked at #29. What is noteworthy is that it remained on those charts for 10 and 9 weeks, respectively. (here are the additional sources for Belgium: http://www.ultratop.be/nl/showitem.asp?interpret=Testament&titel=Dark+Roots+Of+Earth&cat=a, http://www.ultratop.be/fr/showitem.asp?interpret=Testament&titel=Dark+Roots+Of+Earth&cat=a).

Also some lists on Billboard:

#1 on Independent albums
#2 on Tastemaker albums

And some UK sub-lists too:

#3 United Kingdom Indie Top 40
#3 United Kingdom Rock Top 40

Also #1 at Sweden Rock, #13 at Ireland Indie.

Finally, the album landed at position 9 on the worldwide sales list with 58.500 copies sold (here are 2 additional sources for some of the charts: http://www.nuclearblast.de/en/label/company/charts.html?artist_id=71065&year=all and http://acharts.us/album/72235). This was also confirmed by both Chuck and Alex on twitter.

Once again two additional sources here: http://www.nuclearblast.de/en/label/company/charts.html?artist_id=71065&year=all (official Nuclear Blast), http://acharts.us/album/72235.
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One more idea where to seek data. Some time ago Blabbermouth informed that IM fansite (MaidenFans.com) has published the latest Nielsen SoundScan figures for the entire MAIDEN catalog as well as MAIDEN singer Bruce Dickinson's solo releases and recordings issued by ex-MAIDEN frontman Blaze Bayley under the BLAZE banner (http://www.blabbermouth.net/news.aspx?mode=Article&newsitemID=32290). I think, since that is a fansite, you could contact them and ask how to get such info on Testament and Overkill (it would be great to have data on their complete discographies).

On a sidenote, Iron Maiden's Fear of the Dark was released a day before The Ritual. It debuted on #12 at Billboard (The Ritual was #55). As of May 2008 it was said to have sold 438,000, as in not reaching the Gold status yet. Obviously, the sales of both bands could go up and down differently in different years, but this might, just might, be an indication that The Ritual has not sold 500,000 copies in the US yet. Practice is another thing. It was 300,000 before SoundScan was launched (May 1991), and God knows how much it sold in the last 21 years.

One more information for you. The official Finnish charts site is much more interesting than Billboard and contains a lot of info. For example they indicate precise numbers of copies sold of each album which was certified at least gold. You can see that with Metallica, Megadeth or Iron Maiden for example: http://www.ifpi.fi/tilastot/artistit/metallica, http://www.ifpi.fi/tilastot/artistit/megadeth, http://www.ifpi.fi/tilastot/artistit/iron+maiden.

Unfortunately, for albums that haven't reached the gold status yet they do not reveal such info. So there is only chart history for DROE: http://www.ifpi.fi/tilastot/virallinen-lista/artistit/testament/dark+roots+of+earth. Once it sells 10.000 copies there we'll get to know precise data.
 
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