First Week US Sales in for Maiden
Iron Maiden's A Matter of Life and Death shifted 56,000 copies in its first week of release to enter the chart at No. 9 — a notable increase from the 40,000 first-week tally registered by its predecessor, 2003's Dance of Death (which landed at No. 18 on The Billboard 200 chart), and that of Brave New World, which moved 38,000 copies in June 2000 to land at No. 39 on The Billboard 200 chart.
The following are notable heavy metal/hard rock U.S. sales debuts for the week ending September 10, 2006, as reported by Nielsen SoundScan (all CD figures are rounded to the nearest thousand, except numbers under 2,000, which are rounded to the nearest hundred; The Billboard 200 chart position included, where applicable):
AUDIOSLAVE - Revelations": 142,000 (#2) IRON MAIDEN - "A Matter of Life and Death": 56,000 (#9) ALICE IN CHAINS - "The Essential…": 6,000 (#139) BLIND GUARDIAN - "A Twist In The Myth": 3,000 GOATWHORE - "A Haunting Curse": 1,500 SEEMLESS - "What Have We Become": 1,300 HEAVEN SHALL BURN - "Deaf to Our Prayers": 1,000

number. not a free man said:
#12880, September 13, 2006 @ 17:24