Into the Void Records, a Lowertown shop that advertises itself as "St. Paul, Minnesota's True Metal Record Store," has announced that it will permanently close before the new year. The reason for the closure isn't that business is slow — "the shop was/is doing fine," said owner Shane Kingsland in a Facebook post — but rather, Kingsland's wife has been offered a can't-miss job opportunity in another city.

St. Paul's Into the Void, which opened in 2012, was the second location of the unusual chain — the first, and only other, Into the Void store opened in Dublin in 2010 and now remains open exclusively as a record label and mail-order business, having closed its storefront last year.

That first Into the Void is run by friends of Kingsland, who contemplated moving to Dublin to help establish that business — but ultimately opened a St. Paul branch as part of what then seemed to be a growing nexus of metal-oriented establishments in Lowertown.

"I knew right off the bat that I wanted it to be in St. Paul versus Minneapolis," Kingsland told Vita.mn in 2012. "There's definitely metal going on in Minneapolis, but it seems like St. Paul is more of the stronghold."

Now, Capitol Guitars will be the only one of Lowertown's metal meccas to remain open; Station 4 closed in 2013, and doesn't seem likely to return. The next couple of weeks will give metal mavens a chance to say goodbye to Into the Void — and grab what remains of what the store advertised as "Minnesota's deepest selection of True Metal."

"There’s a lot of great stuff in here, and I expect a lot of it won’t make it to the end of the month," wrote Kingsland on Facebook. "I’m recommending a 'get it while you can' approach."