Too Wild to Tame

2002's Too Wild to Tame: Anthology chronicles the short and obscure three-year career of Newcastle, England's Avenger. Somewhat belated purveyors of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal style, the quartet was founded by two exiting members of minor scene legends Blitzkrieg (later made quite a bit richer by Metallica's covering of their signature tune), and proceeded to cut one single and two albums for Neat Records before going their separate ways. That's 24 songs in all, and every last one of them is collected here — starting with three rudimentary offerings from the short-lived, Brian Ross-led original lineup. Really more demo tape than single material, "Hot 'n' Heavy Express," "Too Wild to Tame," and "On the Rocks" will be considered sub-standard heavy metal by most any definition; and the extremely dated falsettos unleashed by Ross sure don't help any. New singer Ian Davidson-Swift (ex-Satan) arrived just in time to record the band's first album, 1984's Bloodsports (indeed, he and Ross simply traded places), and, except for the aforementioned proclivity for piercing shrieks, his style was quite similar to that of his predecessor. As for Avenger's music for the LP, adrenalized standouts like "Enforcer," "Matriarch," and "Rough Ride" showed minimal improvement over their deplorable single. A fact that is driven home by the nearly-as-substandard re-recording of "On the Rocks." And coupled with nonexistent production, Swift's untutored voice (hear him wheeze tunelessly through "You'll Never Take Me (Alive)" and many, many more) helped ensure the album's certain commercial failure. This had little effect on the members of Avenger, however, as they moved forward with the recording of their sophomore effort, 1985's Killer Elite. This time there was notable progress made — both in terms of overall recording fidelity and Swift's performance — the vocalist having amazingly and inexplicably learned to sing quite well! Still, prime offerings like "Revenge Attack" "Hard Times," and "Under the Hammer" were at best good, never great. The album sold in very small quantities, and, no matter how encouraging their recent strides, Avenger still had a long way to go if they were to compete with the late-'80s heavy metal elite. And whatever their long-term goals, all was rendered moot when Swift defected to Neat label mates Atomkraft in 1986, prompting the final dissolution of Avenger. As for the band's legacy: checkered though it may be, it might still appeal to very serious N.W.O.B.H.M enthusiasts.