Lately, it seems like dubious nu-metal dinosaurs Trapt will do anything to trudge up publicity, mostly at their own expense. Unfortunately for them, it doesn’t look like all that press did much to move copies of their new album. According to Nielsen SoundScan data, only 600 copies of Trapt’s Shadow Work were sold in the first week of its release.
How could the “Headstrong” band sell so few copies of their zero-acclaim new album? Well, for all intents and purposes, the album release and rollout were a complete mess. Without any semblance of a proper promotional cycle — unless you count singer Chris Brown’s racist Twitter rants and being shamed in an e-beatdown delivered by Power Trip frontman Riley Gale — there is confusion as to when Shadow Work even came out. While it had an official July 3rd release date, it apparently was released on Spotify and Apple Music on June 19th, according to The PRP.
For his part, Brown has opted for his hero President Trump’s approach of crying fake news. Brown instead contends Trapt moved nearly 4,000 units between July 3rd and 9th: “Not bad for a band that did everything ourselves and got zero word said about it on any DSPs??????? We’re happy with it. Not sure what chart you are looking at, cause they would be missing quite a few.”
Editors’ Picks
Nevertheless, as Billboard uses Nielsen SoundScan to build its charts, you won’t see Shadow Work on the Top 200 anytime soon, despite Brown declaring the LP “probably one of the top 5 albums that will ever exist for all of time” back in May.
Trapt once again makes rock history as their earth-shattering monster of a record sells 600 copies it’s first week! 🔥 pic.twitter.com/fYNVfpbZg7
— Billy (@muchoawesomeo) July 15, 2020
We sold almost 4k albums from July 3 to July 9….. Not bad for a band that did everything ourselves and got zero word said about it on any DSPs🤷🏻♂️ We’re happy with it. Not sure what chart you are looking at, cause they would be missing quite a few.
— TRAPT (@TRAPTOFFICIAL) July 15, 2020
