If you like your metal with clean vocals and the sort of high-octane guitar riffage associated with the golden age of metal, then L.A. stalwarts Fireball Ministry may just be your cup of tea.

The band was formed in 1999 and is led by ordained minister Jim Rota, who has performed marriage ceremonies for several other metal stars and is currently producing the third album by Huntress. Fireball Ministry has also had a revolving door of the who’s who of metal, including (among others) Stone Sour bassist Johnny Chow, drum legend Yael, Helen Storer from Fluffy, and Janis Tanaka from L7. My wife and I used to see Fireball Ministry playing small clubs all around L.A. back around the turn of the millennium and even then they sounded like they were ready to tear up arenas.

To date, the band has produced five of the highest energy heavy metal albums in recent memory. Here, from their third album, 2003’s The Second Great Awakening, is Fireball Ministry with the turbo-charged anthem “King.”

Meanstreak was an all-female thrash band from Westchester, New York, that was active from 1985-1994. They were playing at legendary New York metal club L’Amour when Mercenary Records asked them to contribute the song “Lost Stranger” to their compilation album L’Amour Rocks. The favorable reaction that the track generated lead to Mercenary issuing Mean Streak’s one and only full-length album RoadKill.

Meanstreak is notable for several reasons; not only were they one of very few all-female acts in the world of thrash, but three of the ladies went on to marry members of progressive metal titans Dream Theater. Perhaps the band’s greatest contribution to metal though was their drummer Yael. She would go on to become a metal legend and one of the most respected female drummers in the world.