Since 1994, Rick and Bay Cortez have been providing the LA area with the heaviest metal sounds, from doom and thrash to first wave and black metal. Tucked next to a dry cleaners on an unassuming street in Downey – a city best known for having the world’s first Taco Bell and oldest surviving McDonald’s – the storefront stocks the latest CDs, CD-Rs, t-shirts and vinyl in a cool blacklight atmosphere reminiscent of the ’70s head shops where the Cortez brothers first caught wind of bands like Judas Priest and Black Sabbath. Owning a record store had been in the back of Rick and Bay’s mind since 1986, when they formed black metal band Sadistic Intent. Through touring they made connections all over the world that continue to feed Dark Realm with limited-press releases and in-store appearances by the likes of Cannibal Corpse and Watain (Dark Realm is often compared to Norway’s legendary black metal shop Helvete).
