Track By Tracks: Outlying - Oblivisci (2025)

About the album as a whole (LYRICALLY & MUSICALLY):

The album is called "Oblivisci," which means "to forget" in old Latin. It's been chosen to reflect the tendency to withdraw from reality and "forget" society and the existence you live in, so to speak. The songs express oppressive feelings of trauma, alienation, grief, loneliness, and the album ends with three-part songs about Fred's experience with alcohol/drug addiction. The music is melodic, even with only one guitar player in the band. Compositions are intended to keep the listeners' adrenaline level high, with fast parts, heavy parts, while sticking to trying to deliver certain emotions and messages.

Sometimes, clean vocals are used, as well as some guitar effects, to add texture and dynamics.

Complexity has never been important, as we don't believe in self-indulgent playing. Sometimes there are trickier parts that require skill, but it's all because the music asks for that kind of intensity.

Track by Track (LYRICALLY & MUSICALLY):

1. The Raven Is Gone - Fast, heavy, catchy, and epic, the song talks about escaping chaos and trying to find refuge somewhere.

2. Stigma - Old-school melodic death style, catchy choruses again, the song is about overcoming all the judgements that happen to you when you act in a way that doesn't necessarily harm others, but is considered socially unacceptable and frowned upon. Like being part of a subculture, not getting married or having children, drug use, etc.

3. Snow - Epic, story-telling structure, with female vocals, lyrics are the tale of a young girl abused by her father.

4. Streets Of Rats And Vulture - More old-school thrashy and punk approach, the song is about how you should always be careful who you trust, as many people out there want to backstab you.

5. Pitch-Black Serum - Creepy and dark melodic death metal, the lyrics are about how some people just give up on society, and are infected by a sort of venom that makes them defeatist and just makes them spend their lives indulging in easy pleasures such as porn, food, and video games.

6. November - Catchy, epic, melodic death metal song, the song is about a crazy obsession for someone who isn't available or doesn't exist.

7. Sentinel - Now this one is, like, on the other albums, the power ballad type of song. Even though Outlying is a mostly aggressive type of band, it seems like these kinds of songs always end up being some of the audience's favorites. ("Scars Of Daylight" had "The Last Time", and "Frameworks For Repression" had "Alicia's Tales"). Slower, lots of clean vocals, the song surprisingly has a fast, aggressive bridge. Lyrics are about grief, and how your lost ones end up staying in your head like some sort of sentinel.

8. Impaired - Dark, aggressive, and melancholic, the lyrics are very pessimistic and about how you can feel rejected by society and driven to suicide.

9. Dreamless Nights Part I: A Lullaby For The Insomniac - First of all, the title "Dreamless Nights" refers to when you sleep while intoxicated by alcohol and drugs. Since this is low-quality sleep, you mostly don't have any dreams. This three-part song is about the cycle of addiction, which keeps going over and over. This is from Fred's actual struggles with past (mostly alcohol) addiction. Now Fred has been sober for years, but this is one of many reasons for the delay between the last album and the release of new music. The first part is fast, melodic, and heavy, with a mysterious-sounding ending. Lyrically, it's about feeling powerless about all the chaos and struggles of life and wanting to find escape, which is, of course, the way a lot of addictions start.

10. Dreamless Night Part II: From Velvet Skies - Now entering the fake paradise, the song builds up with a bit of a Tool-esque intro, then atmospheric black metal, and then heavy and epic. The lyrics are about the bliss of escaping the real world and floating around in this bubble of brain manipulation. The song then fades away into the darkness.

11. Dreamless Nights Part III: Walking Out Of Eden's Ashes - When Part II ends in near silence, Part III abruptly kicks in with very heavy parts, influenced by brutal death metal. Lyrics are about the 'hangover' part or 'day after' part, so to speak. It's about how this was all fake; not only is reality still there, it's only gotten worse because of all the abuse. The song and album end in a more epic and melodic manner, with various instruments and a bass melody.