Newcastle's hapless
Avenger put in their bid for worst-ever New Wave of British Heavy Metal album with this ramshackle debut. Truly, even by the genre's raw-as-you-can-get-it philosophy,
Bloodsports is almost indefensible. To be fair, the band's label, Neat Records, wasn't much help, and not summoning a capable producer to aid
Avenger's cause during the recording process was also part of the problem. Skeletal notions of half-decent songwriting can still be heard through the murky acoustics obscuring tunes like "Enforcer," "You'll Never Take Me (Alive)," and "Victims of Force" -- all of which walk the line between traditional and proto-speed metal that was quite popular at the time. Sadly, no words can justify the deplorable excuse for a power ballad that is "Warfare," nor, barring the fact that it's the last track the listener is subjected to, the nearly as painful "N.O.T.J." Not exactly one of the N.W.O.B.H.M.'s brighter moments,
Bloodsports was later remastered and included in its entirety, along with the band's remaining career output, on Sanctuary/Neat's 2002
Avenger anthology
Too Wild to Tame.