Record Stores

[Zephyrus]

I'm one of those people who enjoy the thrill of the hunt, searching record stores all over the area for that elusive album. I download as a last resort and internet mail orders will not clear through this good Christian household.

Around here in Boston the best record store for metal is Newbury Comics, with less than two dozen locations exclusively in New England. Newbury Comics has very wide selection of extreme metal, but not quite as comprehensive as I would like it. A major fault with them is that they rarely restock, for example it's hard to find a wide selection of Bolt Thrower albums there despite Bolt Thrower being in stock.

Other record stores in the area include Tower Records, which has some metal but pales in comparison to Newbury. Then there is FYE which has next to nothing metal-wise. As for mom & pop record stores they are few and far between around here and rarely have what I'm looking for.

So what record stores, whether a national chain or local hole-in-the-wall, are your top choices when metal shopping in your city? And for the Boston crew, are there any places in the metro area besides Newbury Comics that are bounteous in extreme metal?

 

[Ryan VH]

ill tell you that barnes and noble has the shittiest metal selection. they dont even have slipknot. i wanted to find behemoth but i couldnt. so then i went to hate eternal and there was nothing. then i wanted iced earth but nothing. so just to see if there was anything from the sell out band, there was nothing. i usually go to best buy or tower records

 

[Dazed and Brutal]

FYE has a whole metal section with many pre-owned records that are sometimes rare such as stuff from Xasthur.

 

[Zephyrus]

Best Buy eh? How are they in the death and black metal departments?

And yes Barnes & Noble has a crappy selection but give them a break they're a book store. Once I had a gift card there and I bought Metallica's S&M album.

 

[Zephyrus]

FYE has a whole metal section with many pre-owned records that are sometimes rare such as stuff from Xasthur.

Hmm the FYE near me doesn't have a metal section, but then again there are a couple Tower Records near me and one of them has a small metal showcase sectioned off.

 

[Evil?]

There is shit for record stores here in lovely West michigan. There is shit for just about everything but record stores in particular. The closest thing I have here to any thing resembling a decent selection is FYE, and you all probably know that it is not a good selection at all. Sometimes I get lucky but for most things I have to go through Mr. Internet.

 

[Ryan VH]

Best Buy huh? How are they in the death and black metal departments?

And yes Barnes & Noble has a crappy selection but give them a break they're a book store. Once I had a gift card there and I bought Metallica's S&M album.

last time i went to best buy i wasnt really into death metal as well as black. i started liking death metal but never went back to BB to see their selection

 

[zim18]

i have to order everything from the only cd store in my town....took like a month just to get demigod...worth the fucking wait though!

 

[Phrozenspite]

best buy never really has much of anything... they'll have an occasional Dimmu album or something but it has to be from a band of that status. Sort of the same with a lot of Barnes and Nobles and Borders they usually have a bit more obscure stuff but it still has to be on major distribution like Caroline or RED. Other than newbury comics in NH and ME there is a shop called Bullmoose Music which has about 10 locations and has a decent metal and noise section as well as a used section

 

[PanzerKunt]

I download as a last resort and internet mail orders will not clear through this good Christian household.

For all I know you might just not be kidding and to which I have to say lawl grow up d00d.

 

[Zephyrus]

Other than newbury comics in NH and ME there is a shop called Bullmoose Music which has about 10 locations and has a decent metal and noise section as well as a used section

I'm looking on the Bullmoose site, and it looks like it carries a lot of the stuff that Newbury Comics would sell, which is very promising. I see there's a Bullmoose in Brunswick, Maine which is not too far from my summer house. And there's one in Bangor if I go to the university up there next year, which is very likely.

 

[Phrozenspite]

yeah i've been to most of them, the best ones are in Portsmouth, NH and Portland, ME though Bangor's was pretty good as well. all of them that i've been too have separate sections for most subgenres and will carry more then enough to satisfy most people unless they're looking for original obscure stuff

 

[Zack]

For Californian's, it's Rasputin. Fairly good selection, with quite a bit of good used stuff.

 

[Dän]

a while ago i woul have said Big star or Verandah, now Jb hifi prolly has the best range, although big star narmally has a good selection of local music

 

[5thSeason]

here in the Philadelphia area there are a few good stores in center city, all on the famous South Street.

The Relapse Records store has a good selection of stuff. I recently picked up the entire Cirith Ungol discography there! They have lots of stuff from old school to modern metal on CD and upstairs they have an GREAT selection of vinyl.

there is also a store on 4th street called noise pollution that has an ok selection of metal CDs and some pretty cool vinyls sometimes.

Sound & Vision Odyssey is another decent shop, they recently moved into a new building that was previously occupied by my friend nick who had a kick ass metal store. Sound & Vision isnt nearly as good as nicks shop, but you can find some real gems there because the staff isnt metal and they have no clue. I got an ORIGINAL Iron Maiden poster from 1983 in fucking MINT condition from them for $5! I also picked up a cassette there last week, Kreator - Flag Of Hate (single!) in min condition for $1!

tower records also has a decent metal selection sometimes you can find some crazy stuff there.

Two great shops, my friend Nicks shop (Viking Disc) and then Rock N' Roll Plus both closed last year... by far two of the best shops in Philadelphia.

There is another shop in the burbs outside Philly called Goodies Disc Exchange that has a good metal selection, lots of vinyl (its not sorted tho, and there is a ton of crap like the Elton John in there, but there are always some crazy metal ones hidden in there. The cassette selection there is amazing (I got Onslaught - Power From Hell last time I was there)

 

[unknown]

For Californian's, it's Rasputin. Fairly good selection, with quite a bit of good used stuff.

Try Amoeba Records in Hollywood. Any record store that has a section entirely devoted to fucking BLACK METAL automatically wins in my book. Not to mention the death, thrash and power metal sections, as well as a nice metal vinyl collection.

 

[Peachy]

The best where I am is Homers, which has a nice selection, but its not as great as, say, mentioned above.

 

[skeptik]

I try to support my local record shop (Vintage Vinyl) as much as I can, but lately I've been craving out of print releases, so I've turned to the internet lately this year. In fact, I don't think I've been there in over a month.

 

[Jean-Pierre]

I support only local places for the most part, the biggest reason being that there's only shit at mainstream places. Rock of Ages, Hot Hits and Car City Records here in Detroit are fantastic; you can pretty much find anything. However, even though the before-mentioned stores are good, FBC over in Lansing is the best record store EVER. I make it a point to go there whenever I hang out on Michigan State campus.

 

[Evil Dead]

Disc Exchange

Knoxville, TN. Best I've ever been too.