Avenged Sevenfold garners its first No. 1 on the Billboard 200 albums chart as “Nightmare” arrives atop the list, bumping Eminem’s “Recovery” to No. 2 after a five week reign at No. 1. Avenged begins with 163,000 according to Nielsen SoundScan, trumping “Recovery” (159,000; down 15%) by less than 4,000 units.

“Nightmare” is the rock band’s highest charting set, surpassing the No. 4 debut and peak of its 2007 self-titled effort. That album also earned the group’s previous best sales week of 94,000 when it arrived.

The new album easily beat initial sales projections, as some industry prognosticators thought it would move somewhere in the range of 120,000 to 130,000 copies. But those early forecasts were tossed aside by late last Wednesday night and early Thursday morning, when it seemed like the “Nightmare” album had a solid shot at No. 1 with a much larger sales number.