Although heavy music rarely concerns itself with popularity and chart rankings, the hits this summer of Rammstein, Slipknot and now Tool have been especially impressive. Following Slipknot’s #1 position on Billboard for We Are Not Your Kind (Roadrunner), Tool’s Fear Inoculum (Tool Disectional/Volcano/RCA Records) is the number one record on the Billboard (America) chart, beating out platinum pop artists such as Lana Del Rey and Taylor Swift. The band sold over the U.S. sales charts, selling 270,000 units, of that total over 248,000 were in traditional album sales (the physical album version). The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week in the U.S. based on multi-metric consumption as measured in equivalent album units. Units are comprised of traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA). The band also has #1 records with the album debuting at #1 in Australia, Norway, New Zealand, and Belgium, as well as Top 5 debuts in the UK, Germany, The Netherlands, Ireland, Italy, and Finland.
The news of Fear Inoculum’s impressive debut comes amidst news stories of the album release being met by lengthy lines at retailers as music lovers clamored to get a copy of the limited edition, physical version of the CD. The spectacular, groundbreaking packaging boasts a 4” HD rechargeable screen with exclusive video footage, charging cable, 2 watt speaker, a 36-page booklet and a digital download card. The Coalition of Independent Music Stores (CIMS) released a rare statement, describing the event-like album release: “Several stores had well-attended midnight sales on Thursday (it was my store’s first midnight sale in 10 years). When we returned to work on Friday morning, there were lines at the door… the TOOL release was the biggest thing to hit retail in years.”
Tool will tour North America this fall, beginning with Aftershock Sacramento. Tickets went on sale this past Friday and are expected to sell out.
October 13 Sacramento, CA Aftershock Festival
October 15 Denver, CO Pepsi Center
October 16 Denver, CO Pepsi Center
October 18 Salt Lake City, UT Vivint Smart Home Arena
October 20 Los Angeles, CA Staples Center
October 21 Los Angeles, CA Staples Center
October 23 Glendale, AZ Gila River Arena
October 25 San Antonio, TX AT&T Center
October 27 Houston, TX Toyota Center
October 29 Tulsa, OK BOK Center
October 31 Milwaukee, WI Fiserv Forum
November 2 Indianapolis, IN Banker’s Life Fieldhouse
November 3 Chicago, IL United Center
November 5 Cincinnati, OH US Bank Arena
November 6 Cleveland, OH Rocket Mortgage Fieldhouse
November 8 Pittsburgh, PA PPG Paints Arena
November 9 Detroit, MI Little Caesars Arena
November 11 Toronto, ON Scotiabank Arena
November 12 Toronto, ON Scotiabank Arena
November 14 Boston, MA TD Garden
November 16 Newark, NJ Prudential Center
November 18 Philadelphia, PA Wells Fargo Center
November 19 Brooklyn, NY Barclays Center
November 21 Uncasville, CT Mohegan Sun Casino Arena
November 22 Atlantic City, NJ Boardwalk Hall
November 24 Raleigh, NC PNC Arena
November 25 Washington, DC Capitol One Arena