The long-awaited new TOOL album, Fear Inoculum, has officially debuted at the #1 spot on the Billboard 200 albums chart, knocking Taylor Swift‘s Lover out of the top spot. Fear Inoculum‘s sales and equivalent album unit numbers also mark the biggest week for any rock album since Dave Matthews Band‘s Come Tomorrow debuted at #1 in June 2018.
According to Billboard, “The band’s third No. 1 bows with 270,000 equivalent album units earned in the week ending Sept. 5 in the U.S., according to Nielsen Music. Of that sum, 248,000 were in album sales.”
As Billboard notes, “Remarkably, Fear Inoculum’s big debut is a now-rare example of a No. 1 album without the assistance of a concert ticket/album sale redemption offer, any sort of album pre-order/pre-sale access code promotion, or a single merchandise/album bundle — all of which have become the norm for most major albums in recent years as artists struggle to sell albums through more old-fashioned or traditional methods.”
Related: 1,000+ TOOL Fans Partake In ‘Fear Inoculum’ Listening Party At Burning Man [Watch]
Even prior to the release of Fear Inoculum on August 30th, TOOL had already been having a big month on the Billboard charts. When the album’s title track was released as a single, it quickly became the first-ever 10-minute song to chart on the Billboard Hot 100. In early August, in the leadup to the release of Fear Inoculum, the band released their entire back catalog on streaming services for the first time ever. Following that streaming drop, TOOL became the first-ever group to simultaneously occupy each of the top ten spots on Billboard‘s Rock Digital Song Sales Chart.
You can listen to TOOL’s Fear Inoculum in its entirety below:
TOOL – Fear Inoculum – Full Album
In addition to the release of Fear Inoculum, TOOL announced a 2019 fall tour that will see the band make stops across North America throughout October and November. For more information of TOOL’s upcoming tour dates, head to the band’s website here.