Bay Area Metal Titans MACHINE HEAD have been tearing up the sales charts all over the globe with the release of their new album, Bloodstone & Diamonds! In the U.S. alone, the band sold around 18,200 copies in its first week of release to debut at position #21 on The Billboard 200 chart. This makes it their biggest first week sales and chart position in history and their 4th album in-a-row with an upward trajectory. Comparatively, the band's Unto The Locust (2011) opened with around 17,000 units to land at #22, The Blackening (2007) registered a first-week tally of just under 15,000 to enter the chart at #54, and Through The Ashes Of Empires (2004) premiered with less than 12,000 copies to debut at #88.

Comments Robb Flynn: "Bloodstone & Diamonds is MACHINE HEAD's first 'global' hit record, bullying its way into the Top 20 in pretty much every territory around the world, with a handful of Top 40's, and more than a few TOP 10 chart positions WORLDWIDE! In the US, it's our 4th album in-a-row to sell more than, (and chart higher than), the previous album, and all at a time in which CD sales have continually dropped an average of 40% between each of our releases."
"AND, most importantly, it was done with Nuclear Blast Entertainment, a completely 100% independently owned and operated record label. That's right, MACHINE HEAD had better first week sales on an independent label, than we did with the last 3 albums, all of which were through a major label! I cannot stress that enough!"

"It is fuckin HUGE! Fuck YES Head Cases!"

Chart positions around the globe include:

Austria #6
Australia #10
Canada #25
Canada (Hardchart) #3
Germany #6
Finland #18
France #29
Ireland (Indie) #4
Sweden #31
Sweden (Rock/Metal) #3
Switzerland #7
UK #18
UK (Indie) #1
UK (Rock) #3
United States #21
United States (Hardcharts) #2