Bring Me The Horizon and Stereophonics go head to head for albums top spot

Plus new entries from Duran Duran, Slayer, Leona Lewis, more.

It’s a battle of the bands on this week’s Official Albums Chart, as Bring Me The Horizon’s That’s The Spirit takes on Stereophonics’ Keep The Village Alive.

Bring Me The Horizon’s fifth studio album is currently out in front, but with just 1,000 copies separating them at the halfway stage, it’s all to play for.

To date, Bring Me The Horizon have scored two UK Top 40 albums, with 2013’s Sempiternal giving the group their highest chart position at Number 3. Meanwhile, Stereophonics have ten Top 40s under their belt including five Number 1s; 1999’s Performance And Cocktails, 2011’s Just Enough Education To Perform, 2003’s You Gotta Go There To Come Back, 2005, Language Sex Violence Other and 2007’s Pull The Pin.

Following their reunion earlier this year, The Libertines are heading for a fourth Top 40 with their first studio album in 11 years Anthems For Doomed Youth (3).

Elsewhere, Jess Glynne’s I Cry When I Laugh drops two places to 4, followed by new entry Duran Duran’s Paper Gods (5).

New entries

US metal band Slayer are heading for a ninth UK Top 40 this weekend with Repentless (6), while Richard Hawley is on track to score his fifth solo Top 40 LP with Hollow Meadows (7).

Leona Lewis is set to make her Official Albums Chart return this week as new release I Am lands at 9 today, trailed by electronic music trio Nero with Between 2 Worlds (14).

Newcomer Kwabs starts at 15 with his debut Love + War, as The Drifters’ Stand By Me – The Very Best Of opens at Number 17.

German operatic tenor Jonas Kaufmann’s Nessun Dorma – The Puccini Album sits at 20 today, while Hollywood Vampires’ eponymous release enters at 23.

Low’s Ones And Sixes (27), Gary Clark Jr.’s The Story Of Sonny Boy Slim (28), Beirut’s No No No (30), Nerina Pallot’s The Sound And The Fury (31) and Ben Folds’ So There (39) all also enter today’s Official Albums Chart Update Top 40.