Traduza\\ THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA's 'Zombie' Cracks U.S. Top 10

"Zombie", the new EP from the Dayton, Ohio Christian metalcore band THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, sold around 25,000 copies in the United States in its first week of release to debut at position No. 10 on The Billboard 200 chart..

THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA's previous album, "With Roots Above and Branches Below", opened with 31,000 units back in May 2009 to land at No. 11.

Regarding "Zombie", THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA frontman Mike Hranica recently said, "The whole thing is just completely based upon zombies.

"Last fall, I was on a real zombie kick, I read 'The Zombie Survival Guide' by Max Brooks, and I thought, 'What if we made a zombie song?' All it took was me just saying that to the band, and we had our hearts set on doing this EP."

The "Zombie" EP is an extremely heavy record that includes songs such as "Survivor" that follows the plight of a man who loses his beloved to the undead and ultimately, in surviving the zombie plague, spends his days warding off the brain-starved and loneliness. The story continues to unfold with the tracks "Outnumbered", "Escape", "Revive" and "Anatomy". Serious THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA fans will note that the "Zombie" EP songtitles are straight-ahead and serious, unlike the "joke" titles that the band's full-length CDs have been known to feature — "Reptar, King of the Ozone" from 2007's "Plagues", as an example.

"The sound is definitely THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, but so much more," Hranica continues. "It's sinister and bad-ass." Guitarist/vocalist Jeremy DePoyster agrees, maintaining that the "Zombie" EP is faster than anything THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA has done before. "It's going to be sick," said DePoyster. "It's us, but it's more HATEBREED-influenced and just straight-up thrash metal-influenced with some serious SLAYER riffs."

The release of the "Zombie" EP was preceded by a major summer tour with THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA playing some of the biggest venues of its career, and multiple nights in some of the smallest — 25,000 screaming kids one night, and 250 hot and sweaty fans the next. The "Back To The Roots" tour, in partnership with Rockstar Energy Drink, kicked off in June and will go through to the Labor Day weekend.

"We wanted to go back to our roots," said Hranica, "play little hole-in-the-wall places where fans can be right there in front of the stage, where we can hand someone a mic and really have the fans be an active part of the show, not behind a barrier ten feet away."

"Zombie" EP track listing:

01. Escape
02. Anatomy
03. Outnumbered
04. Revive
05. Survivor