Few metalcore bands are able to combine quality music with immense popularity like Pennslyvania’s August Burns Red. The band’s new record, Phantom Anthem, is their 7th full-length overall – yet it boasts some of the strongest material of ABR’s career to date. “The Frost” is worth the price of admission alone. However, quality alone doesn’t always translate into major success.
This isn’t the case with the new ABR record, though. Phantom Anthem just came in at #19 on the Billboard Top 200, along with hitting 5th on the Billboard Top Album Sales. You can view the other chart numbers for the album at the hyperlink above. While number of albums sold doesn’t necessarily indicate the quality of a release, selling tens of thousands of records in your first week is still a really big deal. And for a band like August Burns Red, the quality music is a given, considering Phantom Anthem boasts some of the most progressive and interesting material of their career to date.
