Dreamshade from Switzerland had the honour of opening up this years’ Metalcamp on the Main Stage, and they did so before an almost empty festival ground. Actually, in the beginning there was only one line of people hanging on the fence in front of the stage, but their fast-played and technical melodeath (or whatever you call this genre) as quick to pull a crowd, and after only a few songs there was a nice amount of people gathered and rocking along.

Iko (vocals) was great on stage, running and jumping around, and the rest of the band had a hard time following his example.
Iko was also good at firing up the crowd, and he got us raising our horns and voices to the music at several times, even though we did not know the songs. At one time he even got a big circlepit started, which lasted for half a song or so, and some crowdsurfers were also seen floating by. This response did not go by un-awarded, as Iko threw both band-shirts and CD’s out to anyone who would grab them. Talk about file-sharing.

The show as a whole left me unaffected as this isn’t really my style, but their bigger-than-life attitude and the reactions they pulled from the crowd gives me the impression that Dreamshade have a strong chance of going far.