Review by Felix on June 29, 2025.

There aren’t many bands the global extreme metal scene respects more than Bolt Thrower and there aren’t many debuts more archaic than “In Battle There Is No Law!”. In hindsight, the album stands out of the legend's catalogue. Not because of its superior class; “...for Victory” remains the eternal masterpiece from my point of view. No doubt, “In Battle There Is No Law!” has its qualities as well. It is an apocalyptic, uncompromising and good album, but its unique selling point is the different musical direction. Bolt Thrower were not yet the extremely well-oiled machine they became at the latest after “Realm of Chaos (Slaves to Darkness)”. The catchy riffing, the smooth yet totally heavy flow of the songs, the extreme coherence of the single tracks – all these elements do not show up on this album. Instead, a dystopian darkness takes place and total devastation is on the agenda. Okay, why not? While I write these lines, the German summer gets hotter and hotter and a little bit more darkness would be nice.

Bolt Thrower celebrate on their debut an almost anarchistic style with a lot of high-speed sections which always sound somehow sick and often non-conform. From time to time a siren-like solo finds its way through the hellish scenario and screams for revolution. Yes, “Realm of Chaos” is the name of another album of the quintet, but the real chaos rules here. This does not mean that the nine pieces lack structure, but there is not this basic flow of the later songs. Here, each section acts a lone fighter. Most of them survive the battle due to their murderous configuration, but the feeling is very different to the later albums. The longer the full-length lasts, the more I have the feeling of listening to a punk band gone crazy, but seen objectively, this is a kind of Neanderthal death metal. Full speed ahead, watch out, an abyss, panic and yank the wheel round, and get immediately back to full speed.

Do the songs develop their own form of charm? Definitely, in particular the title track with its 100% metal intro hits hard. Slightly problematic is that the following tracks do not really score with individuality. They are not like two peas in a pod, but the differences are rather small. However, this is no surprise. Bolt Thrower have been a very headstrong unit in all periods of their career. Too much variety only does harm, you could have asked Benediction at the beginning of the nineties, they would have seen it the same way. Therefore, Karl delivers barking, monotonous yet expressive vocals and the degree of negativity does not change as well during the 30 minutes (including “Blind to Defeat”). The production also fails to present nuances or unexpected details. “In Battle There Is No Law!” is just a raw lump, an authentic outburst of frustration, rage and blind destruction. Its ugly artwork does not promise too much and the rare, pretty sinister fragments of melodies, for example, at the beginning of “Psychological Warfare” do not add a friendly note as well. And that’s okay, because the full-length shines with its monolithic appearance. 37 years after the release, its massive statement still has an impact. There aren't many debuts from 1988 about which you can still say the same today.

Rating: 7.5 out of 10

Review by Michael on May 13, 2021.

In 1988 a young British band from Coventry set out to conquer the world with their death metal. Thematically, In Battle There Is No Law!, as well as the following albums, is mainly about war. Whether it is due to the fact that the Germans have destroyed Coventry in the Second World War with their bombings, or whether Bolt Thrower have developed such an affinity to war and destruction by other coincidences, I do not like to say.

The cover is pretty unspectacular by Bolt Throwers standards, a drawn 08/15 death metal cover in black and white, but is also "only" the debut and the band's budget was pretty limited. The logo is not yet the one we are used to from them on the following albums, it still looks pretty primitive. The production of the album seems very rough and unpolished. When I listen to the album, I always notice the muddy sound. This may be due to the fact that the production company didn't grant the band much studio time at the time, and the budget wasn't particularly generous either.

The songs all have a somewhat chaotic structure, which was influenced by the hardcore and punk bands of England at that time (Doom, Sore Throat, they were good friends with Napalm Death and Carcass). The Bolt Thrower-typical song structures are already well recognizable in parts ('Nuclear Annihilation' starts similar to 'World Eater'), but you can clearly see that the songwriting talent of the band is still in its infancy. The guitars do have the Bolt Thrower-like riffing, but the drums sound rather bumpy and wooden and Karl's voice sounds deep, but nowhere near as charismatic as on the following albums. The band manages to make the songs sound quite appealing, as many of the song structures are quite catchy, but unfortunately they lapse into quite uncontrolled bludgeoning every now and then. Also the solos sometimes seem a bit too rushed and a bit out of place. But you also have to realize that the band released their debut album before many other bands (for example Morbid Angel, Carcass, Entombed) and at that time there were only a few reference works in death metal ("Scream Bloody Gore"; "Scum"). Thus, the album should always be seen in a historical context. Tracks that point to the further musical development are the title track with a cool spoken words intro and the classic Bolt Thrower characteristics in the further course of the piece. 'Forgotten Existance' shows the already from time to time and flashing ability to write very interesting death metal songs (the solo alone is remarkable) and 'Attack In The Aftermath' I already celebrated off as a young teenager in 1994 because of its brutality.

To sum up, In Battle There Is No Law! is a pretty interesting album if you want to take a closer look at Bolt Throwers' career. If you are not a big fan of the band, you should better listen to the other albums from War Master on, to be taught a better lesson. In Battle There Is No Law! definitely has its right to exist, even if it is not the album I listen to first when I reach for my death metal classics.

Rating: 7.8 out of 10