Black Sabbath enters Billboard album chart at No. 1

It’s full of doomy imagery and gloomy guitars, but Black Sabbath’s latest album has hardly scared off listeners: “13” debuted this week atop the Billboard 200 album chart with sales of 155,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

The record is the hugely influential heavy-metal band’s first No. 1 in a career that stretches back to 1969, when frontman Ozzy Osbourne formed Black Sabbath in Birmingham, England, with guitarist Tony Iommi, bassist Geezer Butler and drummer Bill Ward.

“13” also marks the first time that Osbourne, Iommi and Butler have appeared on an album together since “Never Say Die!” in 1978. Ward signed on for the band’s current reunion when it was announced in 2011 but quit last year over a contract dispute. Brad Wilk of Rage Against the Machine played drums on “13,” which was produced by Rick Rubin.

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“The news is absolutely amazing -- we couldn’t have imagined this would happen,” Butler said in a statement.

Next month, Black Sabbath is to kick off a North American tour in Houston; it’s scheduled to stop in L.A. at the Sports Arena on Sept. 3.

Other albums entering the Billboard 200 this week include “24/Seven,” the latest from the Nickelodeon boy band Big Time Rush, at No. 4; the Goo Goo Dolls’ “Magnetic” at No. 8; the “Man of Steel” soundtrack at No. 9; and, at No. 10, “The Wack Album” by Andy Samberg’s comedy-rap trio the Lonely Island.

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Twitter: @mikaelwood