
1996 – 1997
Hailing from Newfoundland Canada, Oberon came together in 1996. The first productive line-up consisted of Colin Smart on rhythm guitars, Geoff Waye on lead guitars, Noel Smart on drums, Pat Dwyer (AKA “Count Dwyer”) on vocals, and Rick White on bass. In this form the band played a more extreme form of metal in the vein of death / thrash metal. They played live with bands like AfterForever, sHEAVY, and Draize Eye Test. Just before the recording of their first demo, the band was joined for a short time by Mark Cumby on third guitar. With Mark added to the picture Oberon released a self-financed CD/tape entitled Endless Life in 1996. The band recorded most of the tracks at a local studio and recorded a couple of covers (without Mark in the band) by Slayer and Venom.
1998 – 2000
In 1998-2000 Oberon had an unproductive period. First off, the bassist (Rick) left the band and Pat had taken over the bass duties (he had been a bassist in local metal bands Sacrament A.D. and Devastator prior to handling the vocals). Pat eventually moved out of the province to find work in Ontario so the band was back to its three founding members: Colin, Geoff, and Noel. In this time-frame the band did jam occasionally, but it wasn’t serious.
2001
In 2001 Oberon recruited a bass player who had been a friend of Colin’s for a number of years, Steve Smith. Geoff asked local metal icon Pete Healey (host of the great radio show Disturbing the Peace and ex-vocalist of Marshall Law) if he’d be interested in jamming to try it out. He was a little hesitant at first since he knew the band for playing death/thrash metal, but they welcomed a change to a more melodic, yet still heavy approach. Oberon began jamming some covers by bands like Iron Maiden and Judas Priest and things fell into place. One of their first gigs with the reformed line-up was at The Edge where they opened for some rock bands.
2002 – 2003
After playing numerous other gigs and writing new original material the band recorded their second demo in late 2001 / early 2002. Work on the demo completed in March of 2002 and they played a CD release party on March 30th, 2002. In late 2002, bassist Steve left the band to be replaced by a friend of Noel’s, Joe Dolemont (who later joined Devastator). After March 2002 the band played a few gigs, including what was perhaps the best show to date, at the all ages Breezeway Bar at MUN in July 2003. Following this show the band got a new bass player, Scott Holden. They played their first show with Scott on bass at The Basement bar on Friday, October 3rd, 2003. In the earlier part of the summer 2003 work periodically took place on new material for the next EP. Drums were recorded as were much of the guitars. Sadly, the bass and vocals for this release were never started as some members’ interests lay elsewhere, and the band went on hiatus sometime in 2004.
2008-2009
In the summer of 2008, the band’s 3 founding members reunited and recruited two new members, Dale Drew (from the band KENOBI at the time, later joining the Sea Dogs) on vocals and Mike Gear on bass. So began the band’s third era. Oberon spent 2008-2009 playing a few shows and working on new material. Some recordings started once again, but things fell apart sometime in early 2009.
2009 Onward
Some former members continued on with original bands after 2009. Geoff started the band Category VI and other members stayed active playing but not in a recording band with the exception of Dale who is now the vocalist in the Sea Dogs.
2020: The End
In late December 2020 the band lost one of their founding members. Colin Smart passed away far too young after years of declining health. The other two founding members decided to make a Bandcamp page as a memorial to Colin and as a way to make the band’s recorded music available for free.
~ Geoff Waye