SYSTEM OF A DOWN NEITHER DOWN OR OUT AT #1

Yowza! In an era that sees artists sometimes take as much as two years between releases, American/Columbia’s System Of A Down debuts at #1 for the second time this year, selling 331k of their latest album. We don’t see another debut until we reach the bottom of the Top 10—but in-between, we see BNA’s Kenny Chesney (yee-haw!) jumping to #2, with 300k, a 63% sale spike, thanks to his Thanksgiving eve TV special. And, man, those malls were packed the day after Turkey Day, which probably explains the 72% sales spike of perfect stocking-stuffer UTV’s Now That’s What I Call Music 20 at #3, with 285k.

Warner Bros.’ Madonna drops three spots to #4, with 215k, as the soundtrack to 50 Cent’s Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ (Shady/Aftermath/Interscope) sees a 22% sales spike (perhaps because it’s a better stocking stuffer than a bullet?), jumping to #5, with 202k. Island/IDJ’s Mariah Carey drops two spots—despite a 4% sales increase—to #6, with 191k. And Arista/RMG’s purdy Carrie Underwood drops five spots—despite Jesus having the wheel—to #7, with 178k.

The bottom of the Top 10 is rounded out by those other three debuts—Reprise’s Enya still trance-like at #8, with 169k; Roc-A-Fella/IDJ’s Juelz Santana (will this confuse Carlos or what?) at #9, with 141k; and Universal’s Chamillionaire at #10, with 132k. (These push Roadrunner/IDJ’s Nickelback—one of the big winners of the fourth quarter—into the 11th spot, despite a 39% jump, but with new singles on the horizon, these rock winners should be back in the Top 10 in no time.)

“It was great to see so many titles react to Thanksgiving weekend,” says Hastings’ George Deahl. “These days, we take nothing for granted but sales were very gratifying. We saw strong debuts from System, Chamillionaire, Enya and Juelz Santana with some very strong spikes that included Get Rich, Nickelback and a huge upsurge for The Legend Of Johnny Cash behind the I Walk The Line soundtrack.”

Other notable debuts include MCA Nashville’s Reba McEntire at a lucky #13, with 110k; Wind-Up’s Scott Stapp at #19, with 91k; Nelly’s dual reissue Sweatsuit (Derry/Universal) at #26, with 65k; Aware/Columbia’s John Mayer Trio at #34, with 52k; Warner Bros.’ soundtrack to Rent at #37, with 48k; a Virgin Big Boi compilation at #47, with 37k; and Warner Bros.’ Fort Minor at #49, with 35k.

Watch for debuts next week from Chris Brown, Jagged Edge, Dave Matthews Band and (hubba, hubba) Shakira.