ROCK THE THRONE!

Beggars Group sees yet another of its acts triumph on our sales chart this week, as Matador's Queens of the Stone Age debut at #1 with nearly 85k. This handily beats the first week of the PoMo princes' last release, 2007's Era Vulgaris, which launched with 52k (it's sold 215k to date).

As we've noted elsewhere, the solid bow for QOTSA's ...Like Clockwork follows two big chart prior chart stories for Beggars, XL's #1 Vampire Weekend and 4AD's #3 The National.

Of course, the inevitability of Josh Homme and crew claiming the sales scepter was never in question. But the fight for #2 proved more dramatic, with Columbia's resilient Daft Punk (61k, down 34%) ultimately edging past Rise's alt-rockers Sleeping With Sirens (who impressed with a 60k bow). The Sirens' prior album, 2011's Let's Cheers to This, debuted with just over 6k but has ultimately moved 103k.

Warner Bros. Nashville's Blake Shelton, buoyed by CMT and other exposure, took #4 with just shy of 35k, while two fellow country artists, Capitol Nashville's Darius Rucker (32k, #5) and Big Machine/Republic's Florida Georgia Line (27k, #8) showed staying power on the upper reaches of the chart. The latter were also the week's biggest gainer, moving up 11 spots and 27%.

Meanwhile, UMe's metal survivors Megadeth were the only other debut in the Top 10, landing at #6. Farther down in Top 20, we find 10 Spot's City and Colour bowing at #14 with 20k and Vanguard's Barenaked Ladies streaking to #18 with 19k.

Also arriving and selling 10k were Big Picnic's The Maine (#35), Curb's Leann Rimes (#37) and Interscope's Disclosure (#38), while Atlantic's Portugal, The Man (#40) bowed just below with 9k, and both Essential's Building 429 (#44) Wind-up's Filter (#46) sold 8k.

Streeting today: Republic's metal progenitors Black Sabbath, who look set to shred the competition with a #1 bow, as well as SNL creation Lonely Island (also on Republic) and Columbia's Big Time Rush.