Godsmack Beat Taking Back Sunday

New releases usurped the Top Five chart positions this week, with Godsmack taking the crown, selling 211,000 copies of their fourth studio album, IV, according to Nielsen SoundScan. This makes for the Boston new metal outfit's fourth Top Five album and second chart-topper. Blocked from the top spot were Long Island emo rockers Taking Back Sunday, whose third effort and major-label debut, Louder Now, moved 158,000 CDs. But don't feel sorry for the boys -- this is still their highest chart position to date: Their 2004 breakthrough, Where You Want to Be, peaked at Number Three.

But a pretty sizable blow was dealt to the legendary Bruce Springsteen, who now has to live with being thrown against the wall by both new metal and emo. His moving collection of Pete Seeger-inspired folk ballads, We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions, placed at Number Three (149,000).

Other big debuts this week include R&B crooner Avant's Director, which hit Number Four (123,000) for a career high -- and his third album in the pop Top Twenty. Caribbean dancehall babe (and Jay-Z protege) Rihanna's sophomore release, A Girl Like Me, hit (Number Five, 115,000). And veteran pop act the Goo Goo Dolls' latest, Let Love in, sold 83,000 copies to clock in at Number Nine.

And further down the chart -- but worth mentioning -- is the Streets' highest mark on the U.S. album chart, with his third effort, The Hardest Way to Make an Easy Living. The record sold 13,000 copies in its first week out to land at Number Sixty-Eight.

Next week expect the self-titled Pearl Jam album -- the politically conscious rock band's first record in four years -- to bow high. And pop folkie Jewel's sixth album, Goodbye Alice in Wonderland, should also sell well -- with the slightly more "adult contemporary" set. (The Alaskan gal's previous studio releases all debuted in the Top Ten.) And Queens rap duo Mobb Deep's latest, Blood Money, will likely wreak some chart havoc, as 2004's Amerikaz Nightmare peaked as high as Number Four.

This week's Top Ten: Godsmack's IV; Taking Back Sunday's Louder Now; Bruce Springsteen's We Shall Overcome: The Seeger Sessions; Avant's Director; Rihanna's A Girl Like Me; Rascal Flatts' Me and My Gang; High School Musical: The Original Soundtrack; Now That's What I Call Music! 21; Goo Goo Dolls' Let Love In; Andrea Bocelli Amore.