Davey Oberlin

Davey Oberlin is an American musician with a career spanning various genres and roles. At the age of sixteen, Oberlin worked in animation, drawing in-betweens for Cartoon Network’s “The Powerpuff Girls.” His early career also included a period between 2003 and 2009 as a game tester at Activision, where he contributed to popular titles such as Call of Duty, Guitar Hero World Tour, and the X-Men Legends series. Beyond game testing, he composed scores and sound design for mobile games like “GraveStompers” and Avenged Sevenfold’s “Hail to the King: Deathbat,” for which he also voiced multiple characters and produced ambient themes.

Oberlin’s musical journey began to take shape between 2003 and 2005 when he joined Jennifer Finch’s band, The Shocker, touring Europe and the United States as lead guitarist and second vocalist. Following this, he formed the Orange County-based band Perish, releasing a record produced by Paul Miner. Several years later, Perish released an album exclusively in Japan, featuring Dave Peters of Throwdown. In 2009, Oberlin adopted the stage name Volkar Kael and joined the extreme metal band Dawn of Ashes. He co-wrote their album “Genocide Chapters” for Metal Blade Records and toured with bands like Dimmu Borgir across North America. His career continued with Stolen Babies, where he played drums and lead guitar on tours with Katatonia, Sevendust, and The Devin Townsend Project.

In 2015, Oberlin joined the symphonic deathcore band Winds of Plague as a guitarist and participated in several tours. This period led to a significant career turning point when he was recommended by Brian Welch to join Korn as their keyboardist in 2017, succeeding Zac Baird. Additionally, in 2019, Oberlin launched his solo synthwave project, “All the Damn Vampires,” releasing the single “Saturday” in 2020. From 2022 to 2024, he served as keyboardist and performed second vocals for Five Finger Death Punch, including during the Metallica 72 stadium shows. During this time, he also stepped in for lead vocals alongside Phil Labonte at SoFi Stadium when Ivan Moody was unable to perform due to COVID-19. Beyond music, Oberlin is a visual artist, known for his “Boneheads” pop art character line, with pieces created for individuals such as Bobby Samini, Bobby Schubenski, and Grammy Award winner Zedd.