Born to Oblivion: Press

Terry Lawrence receives an Honor Award for Songwriting for his song "Wings". "Everything about this song is a winner!"

...a very talented group.....a very grooving powerful band........

Jerry Von Friend and Terry Lawrence are the duo known as Born To Oblivion. Either Lawrence has a strong David Bowie fixation, or his voice just naturally sounds like that British space oddity. Even with these vocal similarities, however, this group still makes high quality rock music.
There are many musical influences that don’t make you think immediately of Bowie at all, such as the dirty, grunge guitar of “Cry Wolf.” Then on “Spell,” the guitar playing brings to mind the darkly complicated arrangements of classic Blue Oyster Cult. "Say" even has a bit of a dance groove going for it. Born To Oblivion’s two musicians do everything themselves. Von Friend plays guitars, bass, drums, and sings. Lawrence, who writes all the words, also plays keyboards and saxophone.
Lyrically, Born To Oblivion has a strong progressive streak. During “Spell,” it mysteriously sings:
Out beneath the starry sky, under crescent moon,
spirits come alive again, chains will be removed ...
Furthermore, each track on this ten-song disc is illustrated with a specific logo to go along with its lyric.
This is good stuff. It would be foolish to remain oblivious to it.

Say - Born To Oblivion.

Power guitars, power vocals, power lyrics – just power-packed. Born To Oblivion, based in Florida, can also mix it up with some ballads, so when you feel the need to just sit back and chill for 3 or 4 minutes, they can do that too. Their debut CD has 2 handfulls of songs – all worth listening to. Weekly Podcasts

Wings/Born to Oblivion

This track has a huge sound. Though the listed influences can definitely be detected, this track has a sound all it's own. One second I felt like I was listening to a track that I would compare to classic rock, the next I was certain I was incorrect and was listening to alternative. I was right both times, and probably with every other inclination I had in between. It's definitely hard to classify this track because it almost intentionally defies classification to one genre, I've decided simply on modern rock with strong melodic vocals and impressively tight instrumentation and mixing.
Born To Oblivion has captured something special on this track, and there is most definitely a link to what we now call classic rock. Aside from sound the link is a feeling passed through the track to the listeners. Something familiar, but definitely unique. A mystique delivered via the poetic lyrics. Aside from all of that it's a very catchy track....

" Born to Oblivion is the hellish metal child project of vocalist/lyricist/multi-instrumentalist, Terry Lawrence and multi-instrumentalist (guitar, drums, bass), Jerry Von Friend. Good to have Friends like that. Their self-titled 2005 CD is an almost progressive metal collection of ten tunes that combine an 80's rock sense with an up-to-date production quality that works.... the music is the highlight here. The record has many moments that will send your head banging - most notably the Marshall thick crunch of tight power chords in "Cry Wolf" and "No One". The opening track, "Get It", is chaotic bliss. The guitars work in several directions and the arrangement includes gasps of space that tease a chance to catch a listener's breath before moving into another explosion of rock mortar. Overall the record is incredibly ambitious with arrangements that move away from the straight-ahead balls out metal genre - there's more here - kind of a thinking man's metal based in an intelligent approach to music and writing."