36 CRAZYFISTS: 'Collisions And Castaways' First-Week Sales Revealed

"Collisions And Castaways", the new album from Alaskan metallers 36 CRAZYFISTS, sold around 3,300 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 161 on The Billboard 200 chart. The CD landed at No. 3 on the Top New Artist Albums (Heatseekers) chart, which lists the best-selling albums by new and developing artists, defined as those who have never appeared in the Top 100 of The Billboard 200.

"Collisions And Castaways" track listing:

01. In The Midnights
02. Whitewater
03. Mercy And Grace
04. Death Renames The Light
05. Anchors *
06. Long Road To The Late Nights
07. Trenches
08. Reviver
09. Caving In Spirals
10. The Deserter **
11. Waterhaul II

* Featuring Adam Jackson of TWELVE TRIBES and Raithon Clay of PLANS TO MAKE PERFECT
** Featuring Brandon Davis of ACROSS THE SUN

"Collisions And Castaways" was written and recorded between October 2009 and May 2010. It follows on the heels of last year's DVD, "Underneath a Northern Sky", and is the band's second straight effort to feature Steve Holt in the producer's chair and Andy Sneap handling the final mix. Additionally, the CD sees the band evolving into a three-piece unit following the 2008 departure of bassist Mick Whitney, who left the group to spend more time at home with his wife and children. Drummer Thomas Noonan and frontman Brock Lindow round out 36 CRAZYFISTS' lineup, with longtime guitar tech Brett "Buzzard" Makowski filling in on bass for the band's upcoming touring plans.

According to a press release, "Collisions And Castaways" is "a fierce, dark, crushing collection of eleven tracks that rip from the speaker like a runaway train." Arguably the band's heaviest effort to date, it also happens to be a melodic affair and the kind of record 36 CRAZYFISTS and Lindow have wanted to "write ten years ago," says the singer. "If this was the end of the band, this record is exactly what I wanted our band to do at one time, Maybe a lot of people will think we're just metalcore, but it's so much more than that. It's a heavy record with some big choruses and everything we've been about for a long time with a cool metal feel to it that I've been wanting."

Taking inspiration from his own life, Lindow says songs like "The Deserter", "Anchors", "Death Renames The Light" and "In The Midnights", while vague in their lyricism, tackle a number of personal issues from the singer's past that he admits "I may have swept under the rug." Some of the songs address the constant mistakes he'd made during his 20s, which he says were something of a daze.

"It's definitely about life, my life and possibly all our lives," Lindow says. "It's just something I wanted to get off my chest. All these years, I have been saying if you can quit making some of these mistakes, your life is going to change and you're going to better and you have to be proactive about it. I thought I was doing it myself, but I wasn't. I really wanted to talk about what has hampered progress for me in my life. It's about trying to be the best human being you can be and really putting some things to rest and moving forward."