Early Birds Metallica

Death Magnetic album hits shops early

11 September 2008 - Metallica's long-awaited ninth album Death Magnetic has hit shops in the UK early, triggering a chart battle with Glasvegas.

The legendary rockers' latest studio effort was planned for release on Friday, but was made available yesterday after some retailers began selling it early.

It will now go head to head with the debut album from Glaswegian band Glasvegas, who are hotly tipped to be this week's number one.

Martin Talbot from the Official UK Charts Company said:
"Over the last couple of days there's been a bit of a flurry on blogs and message boards from Metallica fans who've been waiting years for this record. Glasvegas has done very well this week, so Metallica have got a bit of catching up to do, but I've no doubt that once the fans are aware that it's out, that there'll be loads of people going out and picking it up."

Glasvegas self-titled album, which was released on Monday, is expected to sell up to 60,000 copies in its first week, Talbot said.

So far Glasvegas two previous singles, Geraldine and Daddy's Gone, have made it into the top 20 in the singles charts. The band came to prominence after winning the Philip Hall Radar prize at the NME awards in February.

Metallica's Death Magnetic is the band's first album in five years and has been seen as an attempt to recapture their late 1980s period, which saw the highly-praised release And Justice For All.

Their latest album leaked online last week after a French record shop reportedly starting selling it early. But the band, which filed a lawsuit against sharing service Napster in 2000 and has spoken out against online piracy on many occasions, said it wasn't worried by the leak.

Metallica will play an exclusive show at the BBC Radio theatre on September 14, which will be broadcast on Radio 1 the following day.

Rodrigo Davies