The original location of the legendary Tampa, Florida-area recording studio Morrisound Recording in Temple Terrace — which had been used by countless metal bands over the years, including Sepultura, Death, Iced Earth, Deicide, Obituary, Cannibal Corpse and Malevolent Creation — will receive a Historical Marker from Hillsborough County, Florida. The studio will be honored with the plaque to acknowledge its contributions to the music industry.
At its peak, the facility, founded and run by brothers Tom and Jim Morris, had acoustic properties and equipment that rivaled the major New York and Los Angeles studios used by major-label acts.
Morrisound has been in business since 1981 and has recorded virtually every style of music from quiet string ensembles to heavy rock, with everything in between, including jazz, country, gospel, bluegrass, folk, rap, hip-hop, punk, funk, R&B, and death metal, just to name a few.
In 2011, the original studio was burglarized and hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment and instruments, as well as platinum and gold records, were stolen.
In announcing the news of the Historical Marker, Morrisound said that it is releasing a celebratory t-shirt, listing the 20 best-selling death metal albums to come from the studio.
Morrisound commented: “We are pleased to announce that Hillsborough County has awarded Morrisound Recording, Inc. a Historical Marker to honor the contributions that were made to the music industry by Morrisound and its staff, especially in the field of extreme metal production. The marker will be placed at the site of our earlier studios on 56th St. in Temple Terrace, the site of some of the most well-known extreme metal recordings during the 1980s and 90s.”
“To celebrate this recognition, we have designed a special T-shirt featuring our vintage logo from the 1980’s and 90’s across the front, and on the back, a tour-style listing of the top 20 all-time best-selling* death metal albums produced at Morrisound Recording. This limited-edition T-shirt is available only through our website – www.morrisound.com. Click on the ‘Merch’ tab. Proceeds from the sale of this shirt will go toward the cost of the Historic Marker Plaque.”
Morrisound later became the recording home base for Trans-Siberian Orchestra, which eventually bought the original studio from the Morris brothers in 2015.
