Brand New leads both Billboard's Top Rock Albums and Alternative Albums charts for the first time, as Science Fiction debuts at No. 1 with 58,000 equivalent album units on the rankings dated Sept. 9, according to Nielsen Music.
Of that sum, 55,000 are traditional album sales, giving Brand New its second-best sales week, behind 2006's The Devil and God Are Raging Inside Me, which moved 60,000 in its first week.
Previously, the band rose as high as No. 3 on both charts with 2009's Daisy, which began with 46,000 copies sold. That stood as Brand New's last new album release until the Long Island, New York, act returned nearly eight years later with Science Fiction.
The new album also starts at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 as Brand New's first leader on the list. The group is only the third rock act to reach No. 1 in 2017, after Arcade Fire (Everything Now, Aug. 19) and Linkin Park (One More Light, June 10).
The No. 2 album on Top Rock Albums and Alternative Albums is also a debut, as Neck Deep bows with The Peace and the Panic, moving 32,000 units (29,000 in traditional sales). That marks the best sales week to date for the band, following the 18,000-copy start of 2015's Life's Not Out to Get You, which doubled as Neck Deep's previous best-charting album on both surveys (No. 3, 2015).
Concurrently, the pop punk act from Wales earns its first top 10 on the Billboard 200 at No. 4 (besting Peace's No. 17 peak) and charts on Hot Rock Songs (which blends radio airplay, digital sales and U.S. streaming data) for the first time, as "Parachute" touches down at No. 43, sporting a 62 percent bump in digital sales and an 81 percent boost in streams during the album's release week.
Two other debuts populate the Top Rock Albums and Alternative Albums top 10. Grizzly Bear roars in at No. 4 on both charts with Painted Ruins (16,000 units), the band's fifth studio album and first to send a title onto a Billboard airplay chart, with "Mourning Sound" having hit No. 15 on Adult Alternative Songs. It's the band's first album in nearly five years, following 2012's Shields, which peaked at Nos. 2 and 3 on Alternative Albums and Top Rock Albums, respectively.
Plus, Steven Wilson starts at No. 8 in the charts with To the Bone, the prog-rocker's fifth solo album, with 9,000 units. He logs his highest debut on Top Rock Albums, besting the No. 10 start of 2015's Hand.Cannot.Erase.
