The question was if Eminem could dominate the charts again after a near four-year absence, the rapper’s return-to-form, Relapse, will crush the competition next week to take the #1 spot on the Billboard 200, thanks to the highest first-week sale of the year, so far at 608,000.

Even with seven other albums making their debuts in the top 10, Eminem sold nearly as many albums as the rest of the top 10 combined.

According to figures provided by Nielsen SoundScan, last week’s #1, Green Day’s 21st Century Breakdown, dropped down a spot on sales of 166,000. Breakdown, the “Hannah Montana” soundtrack (#7 – 58,000) and Lady Gaga’s Fame (#8 – 45,000) are the only holdovers from last week.

Among the new entries at the top: Kenny Chesney’s Greatest Hits II (#3 – 89,000), Method Man and Redman’s Blackout 2 (#4 – 63,000), comedian Dane Cook’s Isolated Incident (#5 – 61,000), Busta Rhymes’ Back on My B.S. (#6 – 59,000), Tori Amos’ Abnormally Attracted to Sin (#9 – 41,000) and Kate Voegele’s A Fine Mess (#10 – 37,000).