After months of absurd Twitter battles, vocal Trump support, trying to fight Ice-T and blaming George Floyd for his own death, Chris Taylor Brown finally has the first-week numbers for Trapt’s latest album, Shadow Work. Just 600 copies of Shadow Work were sold in its first week, landing short of Brown’s public predictions for the record.
On Twitter, Brown predicted moving at least 5,400 copies of Shadow Work in its first week. The Trapt leader made the forecast while arguing with one of his many haters. “With all your genius marketing, why doesn’t your new album come up first when “Shadow Work Album” is googled?” the online agitator asked. “I can’t wait to come back in a month and hear the excuses for another failure. What do you think, 2700 first week?”
Brown responded, ���Definitely double that if not more. Cannot wait to run it in! Thanks for promoting my band, moron.”
Trapt’s previous album, 2016’s DNA, sold 4,500 copies its first week, meaning Trapt’s first-week numbers have dropped 87 percent with Shadow Work. The album is also Trapt’s first since 1999’s Amalgamation not to chart on the Billboard 200.
Turns out making everyone hate your band isn’t the best marketing ploy, though Brown was convinced the heightened media attention he’s received in 2020 would result in increased album sales. Full disclosure, the 600-sales figure doesn’t take into account Trapt’s apparently gigantic Pandora streaming numbers.
The official Soundscan number for Shadow Work was released by the Stream N’ Destroy newsletter, circulating via Twitter soon after. The report shows Bury Tomorrow’s Cannibal selling twice as many albums as Trapt, while a Powerwolf Best of compilation matched the sales for Shadow Work:
Brown tweeted earlier today (June 15) claiming Trapt had sold nearly 4,000 albums in a week’s time.
“The new TRAPT album “Shadow Work” is the best piece of music trapt has put out and probably one of the top 5 albums that will ever exist for all of time,” Brown tweeted back in May.
Best Rock Albums of 2020 (So Far)