"The Law of the Claw." That's the rough English translation of this album title and reflects the raison d'être for Sol Invictus: a repudiation of Judeo-Christian moral values and a return to what Boyd Rice once referred to as "a more bestial set of values." It is ironic that the tough subject matter is juxtaposed with such a deceptively bucolic aesthetic delivery, but the neofolk scene is and has been about contradictions. Sol Invictus is the brainchild of former Death In June guitarist/keyboard player Tony Wakeford who was unceremoniously removed from that band after its Burial album. In some respects, therefore, this album bears a superficial resemblance to Death In June in the form of its instrumentation: acoustic guitars, keyboards, and drum machines. Sonically speaking, however, Sol Invictus is more "conservative" than Death In June, preferring to work within a pretty well-established framework rather than experimenting too frequently with new directions. This suits Sol Invictus well since the band is quite good at its chosen stylistic niche.

Lex Talionis is the second Sol Invictus, after the 1987 debut Against the Modern World. This album moves beyond the Joy Division influence demonstrated on the previous one, but is still occasionally bogged down by certain 80s sensibilities and technology. This is most evident on the title track and "Abattoirs of Love," where the band gets a little too ambitious for the technology at their disposal and the result comes up a little short. Sol Invictus is at its best when it's at its most basic: "The Ruins" and "Blood Against Gold" are primarily guitar/vocals songs and sound excellent in spite of (or perhaps because of) their sparseness. Occasionally, however, the ambition pays off, as is the case in "Tooth and Claw" and especially "Fields," a reworking of a song that Wakeford wrote for Death In June of the same name. In both cases, the guitar meshes nicely with the keyboard effects to create satisfying songs that conjure up images of ruined and decayed civilizations brought down by the weight of their own banality.

The weakest thing about this album is Ian Read's vocals. Although Read would go on to do great things in Fire + Ice, he sounds incredibly timid and is almost always off-key on his songs. The worst of these is "Kneel to the Cross," which is a laughably bad electronic track that features painful singing from Read. This song would later be done in acoustic fashion on The Death of the West and is much superior to the version presented here. Black Easter is not a particularly interesting song and neither is the title track. However, everything else is excellent, giving the listener a feeling of despair that looks back hopefully at times long since past. This is a great introduction to the neofolk genre as it reveals both its best and worst tendencies. This album was very influential on the genre and is still regarded as a classic.