Slipknot tops Billboard album chart as Swift eyes big debut

[October 30, 2014] By Piya Sinha-Roy

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Heavy metal rockers Slipknot took the lead on the weekly U.S. Billboard chart on Wednesday, a week ahead of Taylor Swift's projected year's biggest album opening.

"5: The Gray Chapter," the second chart-topping record for Iowa-based Slipknot, sold 132,000 copies in its first week according to sales figures compiled by Nielsen SoundScan, and led seven new debuts in the Billboard top 10 this week.

Swift meanwhile released her first all-pop album "1989" on Monday to big fanfare, and it is already on course to be the year's biggest album, opening with 1 million copies sold in its first week, Billboard said citing industry sources.

Rapper T.I. landed at No. 2 with "Paperwork" selling 80,000 copies, while veteran singer-songwriter Neil Diamond landed at No. 3 with "Melody Road" selling 78,000 copies.
 

Rapper Logic's "Under Pressure" debuted at No. 4, country music group Little Big Town's latest album "Pain Killer" notched No. 7 and a cappella group Pentatonix came in at No. 8 with its festive record "That's Christmas to Me."

Pop veteran Annie Lennox rounded out the top 10 with "Nostalgia."

Last week's chart-topper, Florida Georgia Line's "Anything Goes," dropped to No. 5 this week.

For the week ending Oct. 19, overall album sales were down less than 1 percent from the comparable week in 2013 to 4.45 million, while year-to-date album sales tallied 193.4 million, down 14 percent from the comparable point last year.

(Reporting by Piya Sinha-Roy; Editing by Eric Kelsey and David Gregorio)

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