BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE's 'Fever' Cracks U.S. Top 3

"Fever", the third album from Welsh metallers BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE, sold 71,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 3 on The Billboard 200 chart.

"Fever" has also gone top five in Australia, the U.K., Japan, Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In the U.K. it reached No. 5 on sales of 21,965.

"It is unbelievable," the band's manager, Craig Jennings of Raw Power Entertainment, tells Music Week. "There is no market for this band that isn't doing well."

BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE's last album, "Scream Aim Fire", opened with 53,000 units in the U.S. back in February 2008 to land at No. 4. That CD has since gone on to shift 360,000 copies.

"Fever" pairs BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE with producer Don Gilmore, best known for his work with LINKIN PARK and GOOD CHARLOTTE.

The band — guitarist/vocalist Matt Tuck, guitarist Michael Paget, bassist Jason James and drummer Michael Thomas — recorded the CD in studios both in its native Wales and Los Angeles.

The track listing for the CD is as follows:

01. Your Betrayal
02. Fever
03. The Last Fight
04. A Place Where You Belong
05. Pleasure and Pain
06. Alone
07. Breaking Out Breaking Down
08. Bittersweet Memories
09. Dignity
10. Begging For Mercy
11. Pretty On The Outside

In a recent interview with U.K.'s Metal Hammer magazine, Tuck stated about the writing and recording process for the new CD, "We wanted to do something fresh and exciting but that was still us.

"Having Don Gilmore was a very conscious decision. We didn't want him to change us as musicians, just help with the vocals and get the best possible performances out of us.

"It's a weird thing singing in the studio; you don't get the adrenaline the energy the buzz, it's you in front of a microphone looking at a guy staring at you.

"To get the performances out in the studio was hard, but Don was amazing. We rewrote the lyrics and melodies up to five times on some songs because he didn't think they were strong enough. We worked insanely hard to get the vocal lines different but still BULLET.

"The vocals took longer than everything else on the album put together. It was brutal work, but I personally thought I had a huge point to prove so that’s why I stuck at it."

He added, "Everyone's buzzing about this one. We just tried to get that energy and excitement and vibe back into the band because the 'Scream, Aim, Fire' [2008] sessions just ripped our hearts out of wanting to be in a band."

"Fever" follows "Scream Aim Fire", which has sold one million copies worldwide and debuted in the Top 5 in Germany, Austria, Australia and No. 1 in Japan and reached gold status in the U.K. and Canada.

BULLET FOR MY VALENTINE starts a headlining U.S. tour on April 30. Stops for the band include New Jersey's Bamboozle Festival and Columbus, Ohio's Rock on the Range. Upcoming international festival highlights include the Download Festival in the United Kingdom, Germany's massive Rock am Ring and Rock im Park, Sweden’s Metaltown, Belgium's Graspop Metal Meeting, Austria's Nova Rock and Italy's famed Gods Of Metal.