TALKING ‘SMACK

For all those moms who are into being Wiccans, the veteran metal band’s new Universal Republic release, The Oracle, must have made a great gift, as the disc bows at #1 on the HITS Album chart with 118k in first-week sales.

Godsmack was one of six newcomers to the Top 10, whose only holdovers are Capitol Nashville/EMI’s Lady Antebellum, at #2, +28% to 97k, still the year’s best-seller, followed by Island/IDJ’s Justin Bieber (#5), Columbia’s AC/DC Iron Man 2 soundtrack (#8) and LaFace/JLG’s Usher (#9).

The five new entries among the leaders include Columbia Christian rockers MercyMe, Hear Music/Concord’s Carole King & James Taylor album, Live at the Troubadour (#4), Columbia’s Court Yard Hounds (featuring Dixie Chicks’ Martie Maguire and Emily Robison) (#6), veteran Sacto rockers Deftones (#7) and Atlantic R&B diva Toni Braxton’s Pulse (#10).

With MercyMe, Court Yard Hounds and Iron Man 2, label chief Steve Barnett’s Team Columbia scores a hat trick in the Top 10.

Other chart bows are registered by Slip-N-Slide’s Trina (#13), Asylum veteran Midwestern hip-hop icons Bone Thugs-N-Harmony (#16), Atlantic Grammy-winning Best New Artist Zac Brown Band’s live album (#17), Matador’s New Pornographers (#20), Vagrant’s neo-Springsteen rockers The Hold Steady (#30), E1 Music’s underground rappers 8Ball & MJG (#36) and L.A. indie label Dangerbird’s alt-rock faves Minus the Bear (#45).

The week’s biggest gainer is Reprise crooner Michael Buble, whose album Crazy Love apparently graced many a mom’s gift list, rising #22-14, +87%, thanks to the hit single, “Haven’t Met You Yet.”

Columbia’s Train makes the week’s second-largest move, with Save Me San Francisco climbing #45-35, +74%, fueled by the smash download “Hey, Soul Sister.”

Epic’s Sade (#22, +56%), J/RMG’s Alicia Keys (#32, +53%), Columbia’s Susan Boyle (#44-39, +53%) and Interscope’s Lady Gaga Fame Monster EP (#23, +50%), which coincides with her appearance on last week’s American Idol, all register 50%+ increases.

This week’s releases include Jack White’s The Dead Weather (Third Man), Masterworks/Columbia’s 4Troops, soldiers who sing, not fight, Loud & Proud/Roadrunner’s Meat Loaf and Metal Blade’s As I Lay Dying.