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1 million of The Number Of The Beast sold in UK ?? The album was certifided platinum that is to mean 300.000 copies .. so from where comes this 1 million number ?
The Van Halens were huge in the USA and Canada, outside the Iron Maiden they have always been superior in terms of sales: the problem is the US market where there is a huge difference also dictated by the vastness of that market.
I would say that in Europe and South America Iron Maiden also sell more records than Metallica, the figures speak for themselves. As for St. Anger, the two albums with Bayley are even worse in terms of personal taste... then as a general discography I too, as a non-metalhead, prefer Maiden.
They were Thrash, in the very early days. By Master of Puppets, they sound quite hard rock, heavy metal IMO.
Hi Rodolfo!
There are many reasons leading to undercertified releases, and both Deep Purple and Iron Maiden check most of them. In incomplete list would be:
1) Change of label. If I take Maiden's Killers in the UK for example, it was released by EMI in 1985, reissued under Fame in 1985, got back to EMI in 1995, moved to the remaster in 1998 under Raw Power, EMI again from 2011, and then Parlophone took over from 2014 onwards, with 2018's reissue campaign remaining under them. At the end of the day we may be more aware of their comprehensive sales retracing chart & sales data than the labels themselves!
2) The need (or not) of communication tricks. Every successful artist is presented with a tag line, either it is "who sold a billion records", "got 145 platinum awards in the US", "has the best selling album ever", "selling 16m in the US they got the biggest debut ever", "sold 14m in the US with the album...", "topped charts in 25 countries", "won 12 Grammies", "topped the single chart for 19 weeks", etc. Not all of these communication tags require certifications to be backed up. Garth Brooks needs the certs, Iron Maiden or Deep Purple don't.
3) The distribution of sales by market. An American artist with no RIAA Gold or Plat releases will have an hard time claiming he has been a hit. There are many countries where certs aren't a thing yet. Both Maiden and DP sold relatively poorly in the US, and a lot where certs are not relevant like Latin America, so even if they wanted to they wouldn't have been able to back up their "they sold 70m albums" or so reports.
4) The period of sales. Deep Purple were very strong in the UK, Germany, France, Japan. They were at their best in 70-72. Yet, that's in 73-75 at the earliest that certifications started in their best markets, so once certs weren't a thing when you were on top you will hardly care to certify a flop release as Gold in 1 or 2 markets.
5) Mix of 1 & 3, the 'off radar' markets. Both Maiden and DP sold a lot in Eastern Europe markets. They did so through state owned labels like Jugoton, these were licensed products, their label wasn't accounting for these sales at all.
6) The price of certifications. It's easy to pay $400 to certify a million sales. When you need to pay that much in every country where you sold 5k or 10k, you think twice about it. Sales of Maiden are spread over so many countries and so many releases that it would cost a fortune right now to update them all. Not that they can't afford it today, but when you try to optimize your revenue, if the certs aren't needed for marketing purpose, you'll better pass on it.
Agree, also thrash metal is a subgenre of heavy metal anyway, so that still belongs to this category!
Hi ead666!
Their early albums changed of label very often in the UK which is why we never got a comprehensive certification. The album TNOTB was reissued in 1987 by the budget division of EMI, Fame, which certified albums (although they rarely applied for it) on their own.
The album actually cracked 300k during its release year, ending top 20 inside 1982's top sellers. We also have confirmed net shipments from mid 1992 to 2008 thanks to Martin revealing 316k sold. Then Music Week listed 2.08 million Maiden sales from 1984 to 1990, while their new releases on their debut year add only for 840k during this period. Distribution of sales for years 83-91 conclude on 295k sales for Beast. That's 985k confirmed sales by 2008. And then, it has been averaging about 12k a year since 2009 to date. It is 100% safe that it sold over a million!
There has always been an underlying misunderstanding on Metallica. Kill'em all took hardcore/punk as an influence making the primordial heavy metal of Motorhead faster and formalizing it definitively, the next 3 discs completely lose the hardcore/punk component with a much more massive but less cutting guitar sound, in fact Metallica decided to break away from thrash and define heavy metal to blunt and hammer even with more regular and syncopated rhythms. This is to say how the only thrash album in its essence remains Kill'em all (and perhaps if not the best certainly the most important), not for nothing a part of the fans of the first hour abandoned them after the first album.
The other three 80s albums give a new life to metal in general, Justice also with progressive art metal nuances. The black album more than for the compositions is fundamental in terms of sounds for all the future metal, it is a production that has made history and school for the genre, but it is certainly not thrash metal. Load, Reload or Hardwired are hard'n'heavy.
I bought the first four albums used back in the day, i have 4 copys of peace of mind all used, so how many copys were sold more than once? adds up.
Dear M.J.D.
Fantastic explanation! Complete and perfect.
It explains the true related to the myths created by Fonographic Industry around decades. It always seemed strange verify so much certifications evolving artists as Ratt, Poison, Aerosmith whereas Iron Maiden and Deep Purple could have much more certifications according their huge sales and real impact in music history.
Deep Purple and Iron Maiden are great names that survive enough strong until today, with both a immense following cult fan base.
I don't care what's what about the math...no band at all can compare to Iron Maiden. There is nothing else on this planet that can compare to this musical endeavor. One of a kind. Musical Theater at the finest
At this point I think heavy metal is mostly considered to be a subgenre of metal, and is defined by those early British bands like Sabbath, Priest, Motörhead and Maiden. A similar thing would be rock & roll being a subgenre of rock.
As for Metallica, their 80s albums are widely considered to be thrash metal, before the switch to heavy metal/hard rock in the 90s which alienated many of their fans.
So I'd say Metallica is the best selling metal band, and Iron Maiden is the best selling heavy metal band.
No, Jsak is right, they outsold Metallica in the UK, France, Italy, Brazil and other countries.
Metallica but it has not been updated for almost 3 years. It will definitely have much higher sales.
