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Biography : Meanstreak

Meanstreak was probably the first all female thrash metal band ever.

Guitar players Marlene Apuzzo and Rena Sands formed Meanstreak in 1985 in New York. Bettina France, Lisa Pace and Diane Keyser joined later as singer, bassist and drummer respectively. They started playing in some clubs around New York, gaining some success. In 1988 they recorded their first and only album "Roadkill". Maybe the sound could be improved but these eight songs were recorded in just a week, so that doesn't matter at all, the album is superb! There are really thrashy songs like "Roadkill" (which I love) and "Nostradamus" and some others in a more typical heavy metal style, such as "Lost Stranger" which was included in a cd compilation with some other bands. The promotion of the album was not very good either in the USA or in Europe.

After a little time Diane Keyser left the band as she wanted to switch to a softer style. They found a new drummer for the band, her name was Yael Devan. Meanstreak played some gigs as the supporting band to bands such as Manowar, Overkill, Motörhead, Anthrax, Dream Theater... They even wrote some material for their next album but for some reason it was never done.

In 1992 they recorded a demo tape with Marlene on bass because Lisa had left the band. This tape was produced by Mike Portnoy and it was a big surprise as they changed their style a lot. The songs on the demo were "The Dark Gift", "Time Stands Still", "Barracuda" (Heart cover) and "Annie's Back". To tell the truth,"The Dark Gift" still has some of Meanstreak's original sound, it's a great song and the other three are softer than that but they're good songs too. They previously recorded a couple of tracks in 1989, "The Other Side" and "Giant Speaks", and these are much heavier tracks. They could have had a great success, but unfortunately the musical scene was turning to grunge and after a few line-up changes they ended up splitting up.

Marlene, Rena and Lisa are still friends, it's curious, Marlene is married to Mike Portnoy, Rena to John Petrucci and Lisa to John Myung, three members of the great band Dream Theater

It's a shame they didn't record more albums, let's hope they'll do a reunion one day and, as Mike Portnoy says, play a show with Dream Theater as the opening act

Source : http://personal.telefonica.terra.es/web/metalqueens/index-.htm