DESCRIPTION:
Also during this period of the 1980's & 1990's, a new genre of heavy metal music took shape and became hugely popular in the Tampa Bay area as well... Death Metal. Much like the mainstream rock bands that were popular in the Tampa Bay area, the Death Metal bands were becoming extremely popular on the local music scene as well.

Whether it was from the common, everyday, average garage bands that were sprouting up all over the bay area, or the more experienced bands playing in the local venues such as the Brass Mug, or the Ritz Theatre, Tampa Bay was gaining some well deserved attention and recognition with this newer, much more aggressive sound.

Tampa Bay was producing the majority of Metal bands. Bands such as Obituary, Death, Morbid Angel, Nasty Savage and Deicide (just to name a few) were all from this area. Cannibal Corpse, although originally from New York, moved their home base to the Tampa Bay area so they could prosper from the locally exploding Death Metal scene as well.




Before long, record companies started signing Tampa Death Metal Bands to their labels left and right.


Morrisound Recording Studios in Tampa became one of the preferred studios in the Bay area for Death Metal bands to record in. Though the studios did much, much more then just Death Metal, it was Death Metal that helped put the studios, as well as the Tampa Bay area on the national map in the 1980's & into the 1990's... So much in fact that it rightfully earned Tampa Bay the moniker of: "The Death Metal Capital of the World". That moniker couldn't have been more accurate at the time either. L.A. was home to the "Hair Bands," Seattle would eventually become known as the birthplace of "Grunge," and without a doubt, Tampa Bay was then, and always will be the "Death Metal Capital of the World!"

Even with the Tampa Bay death metal scene having an extremely large following, many in the scene at the time felt that it was being shunned by the mainstrem rock scene here in the Tampa Bay area. Though Tampa Bay was receiving world-wide recognition for being the death metal capital of the world, here in Tampa Bay the death metal scene was being looked upon as more "underground." It was even reported that the reason Keith Collins (Savatage, Krunch) founded the annual "Tampa Bay Metal Awards" back in 1990 was due to what he felt was the lack of attention and recognition that the death metal bands were receiving at the annual "Tampa Bay Music Awards" show.
tampabaymusichistory.com