"Earth Rocker", the new album from Maryland rockers CLUTCH, sold 22,000 copies in its first week of release to debut at position No. 15 on The Billboard 200 chart.

CLUTCH's previous CD, "Strange Cousins From the West" (2009), opened with 13,000 units to land at position No. 38.

2007's "From Beale Street To Oblivion" registered a first-week tally of around 15,000 to enter the chart at No. 52.

CLUTCH's 2005 effort, "Robot Hive / Exodus", debuted on the chart at No. 93 after premiering with 13,000 copies.

Released via CLUTCH's own Weathermaker Music label, "Earth Rocker" entered the German Media Control chart at No. 71. In the U.K., the CD landed at No. 50 on the regular chart, No. 3 on the Rock/Metal Albums chart and No. 11 on the Independent Albums chart.

Weathermaker Music label manager Stefan Koster said in a statement: "Weathermaker Music is thrilled with this result."

He continued: "The release campaign began six months ago. We executed on our worldwide plan by integrating touring, promotion, retail and digital marketing as well as specialty/metal and Active Rock radio campaigns in a perfect sequence. Our partners around the world backed us up. RED Music's extraordinary support made much of this possible. But in the end, none of it would have been the same without this great album. CLUTCH is the quintessential American rock band!"

Produced by Machine (LAMB OF GOD, FOUR YEAR STRONG, FALL OUT BOY) at the Machine Shop studio in Belleville, New Jersey, "Earth Rocker" was described by CLUTCH vocalist Neil Fallon in a recent interview with DCHeavyMetal.com as "probably faster than most of our recent albums. Maybe compared to some other bands, it's not the fastest thing on planet Earth. For us it was definitely a step up in the tempo. And I think the other thing that kind of stands out about this one is the blues influences that we've been flirting with over the past couple records is more or less absent in this record, which didn't really happen intentionally until we looked back at it. As a whole, it's just much more of a straight-up rock and roll record."

The artwork for "Earth Rocker" was created by Nick Lakiotes, longtime CLUTCH art director, who has worked on previous efforts, including "Robot Hive/Exodus" and "Strange Cousins From The West".

CLUTCH kicked off the first leg of the "Earth Rocker" North American tour on March 8 in Cincinnati, Ohio and it runs through April 20 in Baltimore. Support on the first leg is coming from ORANGE GOBLIN, LIONIZE and SCORPION CHILD.

The second leg of the "Earth Rocker" North American tour was recently announced and will kick off May 1 in Richmond, Virginia and run through May 26 in San Antonio, Texas. Support on this run will come from THE SWORD and LIONIZE.