Tampa’s Morrisound Recording, where Nasty Savage and others changed metal, will get historical marker

Walk through this Valrico garage, past two Harleys and a host of eclectically-picked items that include everything from vintage 1970s wrestling magazines to indigenous art and you step into the mind of the self-proclaimed originator of thrash metal: Nasty Ronnie.

Ron Galletti has fronted Brandon’s original metal band, Nasty Savage, for more than 40 years. He stands in his personal Jeopardy Room, the title of the band’s first new album in 20 years, released late last year.

While there aren’t any “Twilight Zone” trap doors, spiral staircases or blocked off exits in his home office, there are a plethora of stories, ideas and inspiration within the creative confines of this headbanger’s head. Many of them can be found covertly and overtly on the 10-track record. The band even sold-out of 100 crystal clear blood vinyl LPs containing a flowing red liquid injected into the PVC as an ode to all the bloody stage theatrics that helped create Nasty Ronnie’s moniker back in the 1980s.

To celebrate the new album, Nasty Savage booked a 2025 world tour of sorts, with stops scheduled in Los Angeles, Belgium, and Chile.

“I knew I had to bring something back to the old school because I’m the last remaining guy from Nasty Savage,” Galletti, 63, told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay. “I’m standing on this island with this flag of Nasty Savage going ‘what the hell am I going to do?’ because everyone’s going to look at us and go ‘oh, it’s really not Nasty Savage without this guy or that guy. But I’ve got another chapter.”

The chapter that connects the story of Nasty Savage’s past to its present includes a few Easter eggs: There’s the album cover art, and there’s “Witches Sabbath,” a collaboration from Donald and John Tardy of Obituary. The track is a holdover from the days when demos were cut at Tampa’s famed Morrisound Recording where Nasty Savage cut its first album.

On Friday, May 16 in Temple Terrace, the site Morrisound occupied in the ‘80s and ‘90s will get a historical marker from the Hillsborough County Historical Advisory Council. A reception will follow at Magnanimous Brewing in Seminole Heights, just a short drive from Morrisound’s new location at 8003 N 9th St. in Sulphur Springs.
Florida artist and “warlock” Lewis VanDercar died in 1988, but his grandson approved a painting that harked to Nasty Savage’s Indulgence album cover art. Fun fact about Obituary: as kids, the Tardy brothers rode their bikes to Galletti’s home in the ‘80s, knocked on his door and asked him how they could start a band. They formed a Seffner band called Xecutioner before reaching international prestige with Obituary.

And Jim Morris loved engineering, recording, mixing and mastering Jeopardy Room because it was like a high school reunion for him and Nasty Ronnie.

“It’s always fun to work with Ron, with that smile on his face,” Morris told CL. “He’s willing to try anything and go anywhere. It’s a whole different band, but the new guys all seemed to slot in pretty well. The main thing was to, as a fan of the old record, they needed to be a fan of this record, my goal was to make sure we didn’t leave anybody hanging and somebody hear it they can’t say ‘that’s not Nasty Savage,’ it had to feel like you wouldn’t be disappointed. It had to have enough of the identity of the band.”

The studio’s founder-president Tom Morris called the historical Morrisound marker at 12111 N 56th St. an honor, and pointed to the work done by pioneering extreme metal outfits like Savatage, which was Avatar at the time, and Crimson Glory from the Tampa Bay area. Two dozen of the 30 best-selling death metal albums of all time (as of 2022) are from bands that all recorded there—including Death, Cannibal Corpse, Deicide, Morbid Angel, Obituary, and Sepultura.

“No sane person decides to open a recording studio to get rich or famous,” said Tom Morris, adding that he and Jim opened in 1981 to pursue a passion for recording any and all music.

“We have worked our entire careers to help the artists we’ve recorded achieve their creative vision.”

“We have worked our entire careers to help the artists we’ve recorded achieve their creative vision. This marker is an acknowledgment of those efforts, along with those of our staff and the many dedicated artists that came through our door in the ‘80s and ‘90s. It was the artists’ visions and our execution that led to the rise of a new musical genre in Tampa Bay and the world,” Tom added. “We are very proud that this groundbreaking work has been recognized by the county with this marker. Now, we need to figure out how to get rich or famous.”

While many of the nine former band members who have played with Nasty Savage through the decades have gone their separate ways, three are deceased, including longtime drummer Curtis Beeson, who died last year. Guitarist David Austin left in 2022 after the band played Mexico. Original bassist Fred Dregischan, wrote the intro on this album called Invocations.

The new identity of the band includes Kyle Sokol on bass. A former U.S. Army Captain, Galletti calls him the band’s “organizer” and lauded the fact that he learned the set list in just two days. Jim Coker (drums) and Pete Sykes (guitar) played together in a previous band and came highly-recommended. Alabama resident David Orman also plays guitar on the new album, filling Austin’s big metal shoes.

“I knew I needed to do something to get peoples’ attention,” said Galletti, who motorcycle enthusiasts may also recognize from his 1,340 television episodes and 248 monthly print magazine issues of “Born to Ride” and antique pickers might know from his four booths at the Lakeland Antique Mall and one at Webster Westside Flea Market.

Jeopardy Room was recorded in just eight sessions and pays indirect homage to Rod Serling, who aired an episode of “The Twilight Zone” by the same name in 1964. Galletti calls Serling an “inspiration.” While each track tells a story, some ring true in Nasty Ronnie’s heart of metal.

“Aztec Elegance” harks to Mel Gibson’s 2006 epic “Apocalypto” while “The 6th Finger” is a partial shout out to Jim Morris, who he calls an honorary sixth member of the band. “Schizoid Platform” is an excuse for Galletti to scream lyrics he always wanted to belt out: “Hell a vato, mondo bizarro” and the title track is about the reality of life and not taking things too seriously (especially as you enter AARP status).

Nasty Ronnie likes that Nasty Savage went from the swamps and cow pastures to inspire bands like Morbid Angel, Death, Obituary and Deicide. And he wants to continue to do so. “I want to leave a legacy,” he said.

Look for a potential 2026 follow-up album from the original thrash metal maniacs and something akin to a new media entity/meets podcast/meets reality show for up-and-coming bands that are going to lead what he calls the third wave of metal. Think a Top 10 battle of the new bands that collaborate on an album, learn tips on metal management 101 and get a road tour going.

It’s a smidge intriguing and a stack authentic that after years of bloodying his head with on-stage theatrics that often-included swinging boob-tube television sets, crashing into his ever-scheming noggin, simply to delight the mosh pit crowd, that Nasty Ronnie remains a mastermind marketer of metal for myriad reasons.

“It’s savage metal played nasty,” Galletti said. “I’ve always said it’s Brandon metal.”

This article appears in May 8-14, 2025.