The music industry's collapse is good news for the Melvins, the defiantly uncommercial "thud-rock" band that just cracked the U.S. pop album chart for the first time in its 26-year career.

The group, whose heavy guitar riffs and mumbled vocals paved the way for fellow Seattle-area bands such as Nirvana and Soundgarden, grabbed the last spot on Billboard's Top 200 chart published Wednesday.

It achieved this feat by selling just 2,809 copies of 'The Bride Screamed Murder,' its 19th album. With another 2,000 units, they would have breached the top half of the chart.

Exactly five years ago, the threshold for inclusion in the Top 200 was about 5,000 copies. Since then, U.S. album sales have halved, and the industry last month suffered its slowest week since the early 1970s, according to a Billboard estimate.

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The band's biggest release is 1993's 'Houdini,' which was partly produced by Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain, one of their biggest fans. It has sold about 110,000 copies. The 1996 release 'Stag' posted the band's best opening week after selling almost 4,000 albums. The band has sold 538,000 albums since Nielsen SoundScan began tracking data in 1991.

MELVINS areВ on the TUBORG TOP 40 Mega Rock Chart with their cover of THE WHO'sВ 'My Generation'В - VOTE HERE!