Report: KISS' 'Sonic Boom' Could Shift As Much As 180K First Week

According to Billboard.com, KISS' new album, "Sonic Boom", may shift somewhere between 160,000 and 180,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release. If the set sells that much, it will also mark the group's best sales week since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking data in 1991.

KISS has notched seven Top 10 albums. Its highest charting set is 1998's "Psycho Circus", which debuted and peaked at No. 3 with 110,000 copies in its first week, according to Nielsen SoundScan. The group's other high-charting sets include 1975's "Alive!" (No. 9),1977's "Love Gun" (No. 4) and 1992's "Revenge" (No. 6).

"Sonic Boom" features three discs — a collection of all new material, a re-recorded greatest hits CD and a live DVD shot in Argentina during the band's recent Kiss Alive 35 South American tour. This marks the band's first set off all new material in 11 years. The collection — produced by guitarist/vocalist Paul Stanley — is available exclusively at Wal-Mart, Walmart.com and Sam's Club. Bassist/vocalist Gene Simmons tells The Pulse of Radio they teamed with Wal-Mart so they could make the package more memorable for fans. "Our good friends at Wal-Mart enabled us to do that, which is to say we've always — in the days when we were dirt poor — when we put out a live one, we were on $85 a salary," he said. "We put all the money right back into the band. So when that first album — that double live album came out — the record industry thought we were nuts because it was expensive. And we put booklets and market research in there — just cram packed it full of stuff. because we always wanted to give the fans more. And because Wal-Mart ordered so many hundreds of thousands of these albums we were able cram pack it full of stuff."

Wal-Mart stores around the country are also stocking various KISS merchandise, including T-shirts, throw blankets, Mr. Potato Heads and M&Ms.

Video footage of KISS performing its new single, "Modern Day Delilah", on Tuesday night's (October 6) edition of CBS-TV's "Late Show With David Letterman" can be viewed below.

KISS filmed footage for the "Modern Day Delilah" video during the band's private warm-up show at Cobo Arena in Detroit, Michigan on September 24. Over 1,500 lucky fans attended the event, where the group also previewed its new stage and taped two songs for an episode of "Jimmy Kimmel Live!"

KISS's new album, "Sonic Boom", was released in Europe this past Monday (October 5) via Loud & Proud/Roadrunner Records.

The "Sonic Boom" cover art was created by Michael Doret, who also designed the band's classic "Rock And Roll Over" album cover.