Robert Trujillo’s hit albums keep on coming…
The 55-year-old half-Mexican American bassist and his Metallica band mates have scored their third No. 1 on Billboard‘s Top Rock Albums chart, as S&M2 debuts at the top of the ranking list dated September 12.
Recorded live on September 6 and 8, 2019, with the San Francisco Symphony, the set arrives with 56,000 equivalent album units earned in the tracking week ending September 3, according to Nielsen Music/MRC Data. Of that sum, 53,000 units are via album sales.
The Rock & Roll Hall of Fame-enshrined band now boasts three Top Rock Albums No. 1s since the chart began in 2006. Death Magnetic ruled for five weeks in 2008 and Hardwired… to Self-Destruct reigned for six in 2016-17.
The new set also debuts atop the Hard Rock Albums chart, where it’s Metallica’s third leader and the San Francisco Symphony‘s first. On Classical Albums, the LP likewise launches at No. 1, as Metallica earns its first leader; the orchestra also leads for the first time, as it ups its count to 11 top 10s.
On the all-genre Billboard 200, S&M2 bows at No. 4, marking Metallica’s 11th top 10. S&M2‘s predecessor, S&M, debuted and peaked at No. 2 in November 1999.
Metallica now becomes the first group, and the third act overall, with at least one new Billboard 200 top 10 in each of the last five decades. The band banked one top 10 in the ’80s (…And Justice for All, No. 6 in 1988); five in the ’90s (its No. 1 self-titled set in 1991; Load, No. 1 in 1996; Reload, No. 1 in 1997; Garage Inc., No. 2 in 1998; and S&M, No. 2 in 1999); two in the ’00s (St. Anger, No. 1 in 2003; and Death Magnetic, No. 1 in 2008); two in the ’10s (Metallica: Through the Never, No. 9 in 2013; and Hardwired… To Self-Destruct, No. 1 in 2016); and now one in the ’20s, with S&M2.
