Death is presented as an all-encompassing force of necessary change acting as both catalyst for (and the end result of) progress on this debut full-length album from Reichenbach, Germany-based ‘old school’ inspired death/thrash metal quartet Boundless Chaos. Displaying the most classic traits of the thrash ’til death/thrash metal transmutation common among mid-to-late 80’s riff obsessed crews, ‘Sinister Upheaval‘ offers a clear-cut lesson in morbid defiance, death-atmospheric speed metal with very little flourish or extraneous focus beyond their own mayhemic attack upon corruption and ignorance. Swinging mad in its whorl of chain-whipping fists upon a very easily hit target, this debut is a rare form today per its lean toward classic thrasher sensibilities first and brutal extremophilic pulse second.

Formed circa 2017 as throwback black-thrashers The True Hellfyre Warmachine parted ways with their vocalist and smartly decided to rebrand their approach, it wasn’t until 2019 that Boundless Chaos became a concrete entity per the addition of vocalist E.M. who was probably best known for fronting the pre-Goatfuck blackened death-thrash crew Slaughtered Existence in the mid-2010’s. They were ready with their first EP by the end of 2020 wherein ‘Of Death and Perdition‘ made it clear they were heavily inspired by classic German thrash forms (Kreator, Sodom) as a foundational point and the late 80’s death/thrash that’d been influenced by it nearby with a sound one could easily lump in with the best of Protector, Minotaur, or Overthrow (Canada) with a tendency toward simpler grooves and the ‘Persecution Mania‘ tendency to resort to simpler hardcore punk patternation when the speed picks up (see: “Demons Unchained”, “Tyrant’s Call”.) Over the next few years they’d done splits with Australia-to-Berlin imports Idle Ruin and German black metal project Reign in Blood without drastically changing their approach on those collective four songs beyond different render or mastering on each release. As a big fan of this style I wasn’t all that impressed with their songwriting though these folks had the right sound, plenty of aggression on the vocalist’s part and when the speed really picked up they’d been at their best on those first three minor releases. I’d sort of missed the extra reverb, or, imposing sound of the vocals on their debut EP as E.M.‘s voice became either more intelligible or present on successive splits.

‘Sinister Upheaval‘ makes a better-rounded case for the thrash/death metal niche inhabited with a more blunt edged render (per Ekaitz of Sijjin/BlackStorm Studios), giving a bigger expanse for the drum kit to kick around within while thinning the rhythm guitar tone to the point of proper dual-toned electric surge at its higher registers with still enough lower end to feed their aggressive but not entirely precision approach to riffcraft. At this point we still hear the Sodom, Slayer (and even Sepultura)-isms in the transitional movement of Boundless Chaos‘ general rhythms were all is braced by the late 80’s underground thrash metal side of songwriting, something swinging but brutal (see: “Kromer’s Whistle”) a la Infected‘s underrated ‘Dark Century‘, yet we cannot run smack into the goblin-faced riffs of a song like “High Tension” and not pick up on a chunk of Kreator fever to their approach. That is to say that this record will immediately feel both authentic and familiar to a studied fan of late 80’s thrash metal aggression without any particular flair to its presentation beyond hammering at evil riffs and finding some clever patternation for a growled vocal in the context of street thrash. I’d not seen the tunnel vision coming for this until the gallop and kicked rhythms of “Arson From Beyond” kinda helped fully flip their speed into gear and the rest of the album more-or-less holds that pace for its ~35 minute duration.

The real fight of this album happens at its mid-point where we get my favorite piece, “Kromer’s Whistle”, which basically brings all of the points described prior into one four minute thrasher with a few hairy leads bringing some intensity to its peak. Though their weakest point overall might be in trading off solos, which amount to little more than scrambling filler most of the time, it works on this song before kinda fumbling towards the end of the follow-up “Guillotine” which features guest vocals from Malte Gericke (Sijjin, ex-Necros Christos). The full listen doesn’t have that much else to throw at you beyond that point though we find their most structured and kinda over the top piece in the glorious “Blasphemous Rupture” and the catchy bounding movements of “Rip Out the Roots”. While I’d not suggest Boundless Chaos need to hit a sharper technical standard overall, their rough physicality to rhythm is part of the charm, but I’d felt like the two longer late-album pieces called for buckling up at least a ‘History of Hate‘ level of finesse. Overall I’d found the full listen flowed well from piece to piece, kicked up lots of energy to start, held interest in the middle and dumped the rest of its more knotted-up ideas in the back half and in this sense it’d been approachable as a fan of classic thrash metal with a barbaric edge to its attack.

Boundless Chaos already had their general style and attack down before they’d approached this full-length and the major improvements, or, points of interest here reiterate what they’re all about with some improvements made to sound design and with a few different song types ventured. Their work is otherwise well-characterized by a cool-ass logo and simple but impressive album art (per E.M.) which does well to yank the mind back to a underground death-thrash metal mindset without feeling naive or implying full-on pure death metal in its intent. Though it doesn’t offer anything too mind-bending beyond a strong introduction to their craft ‘Sinister Upheaval‘ checks all of the boxes necessary for an debut full-length and at a little over a half hour they keep the experience just engaging enough to hold up to repeat listens. A moderately high recommendation, higher for fans of ‘old school’ extreme thrash metal.

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