AC/DC BATTLES THE VAMPIRES

AC/DC has come a long way to the top, and they’d like to stay there for a third consecutive week with their Wal-Mart exclusive Black Ice album, available on ice cream trucks everywhere from the good folks at Columbia Records.

They will have a fight on their hands, though, from a toothsome challenger in Atlantic’s soundtrack to the vampire film Twilight, based on Stephenie Meyer’s best-selling series of books. The movie opens Nov. 21 in theaters nationally and is expected to be one of the holiday season’s big box office hits. The album features Paramore, Linkin Park, Muse, Perry Farrell, Collective Soul, The Black Ghosts, Iron & Wine and Carter Burwell, among others.

Universal Republic’s Hinder and Decca’s Andrea Bocelli are the next biggest debuts, at around 70-80k apiece. Arista Nashville’s Brad Paisley is next with 50k for his new album Play, while Universal Motown hip-hop icon Q Tip is looking in the 30k range for The Renaissance, the first new solo album for the former Tribe Called Quest member since 1999’s gold Amplified.

Look for Universal Motown’s Grammy-nominated Shiny Toy Guns to debut in the Top 50 as well.

Overall, the market was down 2% vs. last week, down 25% vs. same week last year and now down 13% year to date. But it’s bound to get better now that Obama’s in office.