Record Store Profile: Utopia Records

What is your store called? 

Utopia Records

Where are you located? 

Lower Ground Floor, 511 Kent Street, Sydney and online here.

Do you cater for a specific niche or genre?

Since 1978 we have been known as THE HOME OF HEAVY METAL, but that term covers a lot of ground in 2025, from the Classic Rock bombast of Cream, Deep Purple,The Who,Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath to today's myriad of sub-genres and even sub-genres within sub-genres such asTechnical Death Metal, Funeral Doom, Neoclassical Shred, Djent, Ambient Black Metal, Deathcore, Scooby Doo Chase Music etc etc etc. If it's noisey, chances are we have it.

Tell us about the people behind the scenes?

They landed near Roswell, New Mexico in the late 1940's, that's all we are allowed to divulge.

When and why did the store open? 

The store opened in 1978 after the original owner asked for a job in all the Sydney stores and got knocked back. He started importing albums himself and soon enough, Utopia was born.

What do your customers most know you for?

Hopefully for having what they want, providing helpful and friendly service, and not taking ourselves too seriously.

What is the most popular title you stock at the moment? 

The two biggest selling albums for us so far this year by a country mile are GHOST - SKELETA and SLEEP TOKEN - EVEN IN ARCADIA. Our best selling Australian release in the last 12 months has been THE HARD ONS - I LIKE YOU A LOT GETTING OLDER which is sweet considering the band has been around for 40 years and one of them works here.

What is the most popular evergreen title? 

Where do we start? VAN HALEN - VAN HALEN, METALLICA - RIDE THE LIGHTNING, DEAD KENNEDYS - FRESH FRUIT FOR ROTTING VEGETABLES, IRON MAIDEN - NUMBER OF THE BEAST, KREATOR - EXTREME AGGRESSION, VAIN - NO RESPECT, PANTERA - VULGAR DISPLAY OF POWER, W.A.S.P. - W.A.S.P., SEPULTURA - BENEATH THE REMAINS, ALICE IN CHAINS - DIRT, NAPALM DEATH - SCUM, RUSH - MOVING PICTURES, VENOM - BLACK METAL, EVANESCENCE - FALLEN, MAYHEM - DE MYSTERIIS DOM SATHANUS, JUDAS PRIEST - PAINKILLER, THE CULT - ELECTRIC, MORTAL SIN - MAYHEMIC DESTRUCTION, GIRLSCHOOL - HIT AND RUN, BLACK SABBATH - MASTER OF REALITY, MEGADETH - RUST IN PEACE, KISS - DESTROYER, SLIPKNOT - SLIPKNOT, FAITH NO MORE - THE REAL THING, MOTLEY CRUE - SHOUT AT THE DEVIL, CARCASS - HEARTWORK, DEF LEPPARD - PYROMANIA, TOOL - UNDERTOW, MOTORHEAD - ACE OF SPADES, THE RUNAWAYS - THE RUNAWAYS, TYPE O NEGATIVE - BLOODY KISSES, LED ZEPPELIN - IV,  It never bloody ends!

What is the best thing about running a record store in 2025?

The same as it has always been, communicating with like-minded (and some not so like-minded) music lovers from 5 to 85 years old who have a fascination and passion for the artists we sell. You can have a completely different upbringing and life experience to someone else, but the common love of music binds you together. At our store it is not uncommon at all to look out into the racks and see a guy covered in tatts dressed like something out of MAD MAX II conversing with a school girl in uniform and a sixty year old businessman in a suit about their shared love for the new ZENITH PASSAGE album or how great BOSTON were. Things that shouldn't make sense make sense here...

What is the hardest thing about running a record store in 2025?

Although we try to put on a happy face and keep things positive at all times, the ongoing issues we are having with our suppliers both locally and internationally have never been as frustrating as they are now. Stuff often arrives more than a month after release date, quantities of new releases coming into the country are miniscule, and quite often titles are being deleted just months after they are released. Don't get us wrong, there are still some wonderfully passionate people working at these companies, but when the bean counters say no it is hard to convince them otherwise. The number of times we have been told "We aren't releasing that here" when we were just about to order 100 copies of something is just insane at this point.