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 lyrics here spread the despair and angst around to serial killers, Jezebel-ish girlfriends who tease to the point of emotional damage, lost lives, to the final three tracks which spin a demonic tone on the record, culminating in "No One". The track points out that no one's gonna save or take your pain away. This, from a collection that begins with an opening track of dysfunction and relationship psychosis in "Get It" - you understand why the end path leads to hell. Despite the obvious rawness and intimate torture of the words, 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. The long mp3 here, "SOS", highlights an aspect of BTO that we haven't heard before, and that is in the vocal approach of the verse. The passages are almost spoken - nearly rock performance art with a touch of humor. Demented, possibly - and, again, it works. 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. Cerebral qualities aside, the record communicates on target and rocks your head.