EPK – Outlying – Oblivisci (2025)
Publicist – Jon Asher – jon[@]ashermediarelations[.]com
“Hopefully, people will feel and understand the dark thoughts and experiences that influenced the lyrics and music. We also hope people will consider this a ‘no skipped tracks’ album, where every song matters and nothing was written as a filler.” – Fred A. Dubeau – Outlying
For fans of Dark Tranquillity, At The Gates, Testament, Evergrey, Machine Head
Band Name: Outlying
Album Title: Oblivisci
Release Date: November 21, 2025
Label: Self-Release
Distributed by Tunecore
Location: Trois-Rivieres, QC, Canada
Outlying.ca | Facebook.com/outlyingband | Youtube.com/user/OutlyingBand | Instagram.com/outlyingband | Tiktok.com/@outlying.band
“Outlying offers a solid Swedish-style melodic death metal sound with their own personal touch.” – MetalUniverse.net
“With a biting energy and a relentless intensity, [Pitch-Black Serum] hits with an uncommon ferocity while keeping a dynamic, melodic and catchy structure.” – MetalUniverse.net
“I had never heard of this band before, so I was all the more amazed by the high level of performance the band had already achieved in 2012 [Scars Of Daylight album]. They are reminiscent of Scandinavian melodic death metal bands of the late 1990s.” – Ammo-underground.at
“The three gentlemen serve us finely spun melodies; the musicians tie everything together into a flowing, detailed unity. A bit of clean vocals are sprinkled in here and there, and so a lot happens in this largely whipping smasher. A few threatening vibes and thrashy, straight-ahead tactics are also effectively employed, as is polyphonic vocals – everything just fits! Raising fists, enjoying details, headbanging – it’s a mystery to me why these all-rounders are still so unknown!” – Ammo-underground.at
[Download Album Cover | Download Album Lyrics]
Band Name: Outlying
Album Title: Oblivisci
Release Date: November 21, 2025
Label: Self-Release
Distributed by Tunecore
Location: Trois-Rivieres, QC, Canada
Track Listing:
1 – The Raven Is Gone – 5:27
2 – Stigma – 3:49
3 – Snow – 6:02
4 – Streets Of Rats And Vultures – 4:47
5 – Pitch-Black Serum – 4:36
6 – November – 5:56
7 – Sentinel – 5:43
8 – Impaired – 5:32
9 – Dreamless Nights Part I: A Lullaby For The Insomniac – 4:19
10- Dreamless Nights Part II: From Velvet Skies – 5:13
11- Dreamless Nights Part III: Walking Out Of Eden’s Ashes – 4:25
Album Length: 55:49
Album Credits:
All songs performed, written and produced by Fred A. Dubeau and Martin Reithler
Mixed and mastered by Fred A. Dubeau
Album Artwork by Fred A. Dubeau
Album recording lineup:
Fred A. Dubeau – Guitar, Bass, All Vocals Martin Reithler – Drums
Guest musicians for the album:
Steph from “Exotoxic” – Auxiliary percussions
Marilyn from “Chained By Illness” – Female Vocals
Sim from “Lancaster” – Guest Guitar Solo
Hardcore Band “Northwalk” – Gang Vocals
Lineup for live:
Fred A. Dubeau – Guitar, Vocals
Charles Alex Bilodeau – Bass, Back Vocals
Martin Reithler – Drums
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About The Album Artwork
A post-apocalyptic version of our home city
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.
============================================
FUN FACTS – STORY ANGLES:
1. In Outlying’s most recent lineup, everybody in the band was introduced to Fred as a pure coincidence. Martin “Frenchy” was listening to a metal podcast from Drummondville while still living in France and heard an interview with Fred saying he was looking for a permanent drummer. Frenchy already intended to move to Quebec and decided to send Fred a message saying he’d be interested in playing in the band. When Fred read the message, he thought it was either spam or a joke.
2. In a more recent time, Fred got contacted by a woman he knows, who was asking if she could borrow his soldering iron to fix her friend’s bass guitar. Fred then drove to the lady’s apartment with his soldering iron and was then introduced to Charles Alex. A couple of weeks later, Fred was trying to find a new bass player since J-D was gone, and remembered Charles Alex.
3. Founding Outlying drummer Guy Provencher now plays bass in Strigampire and guitar in Hopeless Nation. Fred played bass and rhythm guitar in Strigampire for a couple of years, many years ago. Steve, who is the vocalist for Strigampire and drummer for Hopeless Nation, also played drums on Outlying’s “Scars Of Daylight” album, and played live drums in Outlying when Frenchy was back in France for a little while. Trois-Rivieres’ metal scene is small.
4. Back when the band started, it was very hard for Fred to find a job and money, so he found counterfeit versions of audio and graphic software and tried to make his own records by himself. He eventually really got into audio production and graphic design, and to this day still does all that work for the band, as well as for some local bands.
5. The city of Trois-Rivieres is known for the Trois-Rivieres Metalfest, and also, the most well-known band from the city is a tech metal band called Martyr. Martyr’s drummer played in Gorguts and Beneath The Massacre, and their vocalist and guitar player now also plays in Voivod. Voivod’s bass player is also from Trois-Rivieres.
6. Despite being based in Trois-Rivieres, none of the band members grew up there. Charles Alex is from around Victoriaville, Fred was raised in a town near Becancour, and Martin “Frenchy” is from a suburban area near Paris, France.
L-R: Charles Alexandre Bilodeau (Bass, Back Vocals), Fred A. Dubeau (Guitar, Vocals), Martin Reithler (Drums)
Photo by Sandy Champagne
Outlying, founded in 2007 by lead vocalist/guitarist, as well as producer and writer, Fred A. Dubeau, is based in an old industrial city in the province of Quebec, Canada. Their first EP, titled ‘Within The Jail Of The Unfortunate’, was released in 2008. In 2012, after a few line-up changes, the band released a full-length album titled ‘Scars Of Daylight’. Later that year, bassist JD Poirier and French drummer Martin Reithler joined the band. In 2016, the trio released ‘Frameworks For Repression’.
In 2024, after many years of writing, creating, performing, and managing various issues, the band recruited Charles Alex Bilodeau to be their new bass player.
Outlying is now completing another full-length album, while releasing new singles along the way, such as ‘November’ and ‘Pitch Black Serum’.
Discography:
2025 – Oblivisci
2024 – Pitch-Black Serum – Single
2023 – November – Single
2016 – Frameworks For Repression – Album
2012 – Scars Of Daylight – Album
2008 – Within The Jail Of The Unfortunate – EP
Shared Stage with: The Agonist, Gone In April, Augury, Burning The Oppressor, Mass Murder Messiah, Lancaster, Last Dance Among Wolves
2021 – Breakout Tour – Quebec Tour
2015 – Trois-Rivieres Metalfest – Trois-Rivieres
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