QUEENSRŸCHE, POISON, LACUNA COIL Land In BILLBOARD's Top 30

QUEENSRŸCHE's "Operation: Mindcrime II" has sold 44,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at No. 14 on next week's The Billboard 200 chart. This is more than half of the total sales tally registered by the band's last studio album, 2003's "Tribe", which sold 20,000 copies in the first week and has shifted less than 75,000 units so far, according to Nielsen SoundScan. Meanwhile, the band's 1999 effort, "Q2K", opened with sales of 28,000 and has sold 150,000 copies to date.

QUEENSRŸCHE's top-selling album by far is 1990's "Empire", which was certified triple-platinum in October 1994 for sales in excess of three million copies in the United States. The original "Operation: Mindcrime" release (1988) attained platinum status in August 1991, while 1994's "Promised Land" reached the same plateau in December 1994.

In other chart news, LACUNA COIL's "Karmacode" shifted just under 34,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to land at No. 28 on next week's The Billboard 200 chart. The band's 2002 album "Comalies" has sold more than 230,000 copies in the United States, according to Nielsen SoundScan. A representative for the group's record label, Century Media, recently told Billboard magazine that the album has sold 500,000 units worldwide.

LACUNA COIL will be on the cover of at least a half-dozen metal magazines this spring. In addition, an April appearance on "Jimmy Kimmel Live!" and a segment of "The Mix" on ABC News are slated, according to Billboard.

Another notable debut on this week's chart is POISON's 18-track collection, "The Best of Poison: 20 Years of Rock", which commemorates POISON's 20th anniversary and the band's career tally of more than 25 million albums and DVDs sold around the world. The album, which packs the group's biggest hits and fan favorites, opens with nearly 40,000 copies to debut at No. 17 on next week's chart.

POISON's "Greatest Hits 1986-1996" collection, which was originally released in November 1996, was officially certified double-platinum in November 2005 by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) for shipments in excess of two million copies in the United States.

The following are notable heavy metal/hard rock U.S. sales debuts for the week ending April 9, 2006, as reported by Nielsen SoundScan (all figures are rounded to the nearest thousand, except numbers under 2,000, which are rounded to the nearest hundred; The Billboard 200 chart position included, where applicable):

QUEENSRŸCHE – "Operation: Mindcrime II": 44,000 (#14)
POISON – "The Best of Poison: 20 Years of Rock": 40,000 (#17)
LACUNA COIL – "Karmacode": 34,000 (#28)
DEAD TO FALL - "The Phoenix Throne": 4,000
PANTERA – "3 Vulgar Videos From Hell" DVD: 1,700
BLACKMORE'S NIGHT – "The Village Lanterne": 1,500
CALIBAN – "Undying Darkness": 1,700
EVERGREY - "Monday Morning Apocalypse": 1,400
KATATONIA - "The Great Cold Distance": 1,100
VENOM – Metal Black": 1,100
ONE MAN ARMY AND THE UNDEAD QUARTET – "21st Century Killing Machine": 100
TERROR 2000 - "Terror For Sale": 100