It had been a long time since the last time we saw Switzerland’s young melo-death-core (yeah, I’m not so hot at naming genres...) band Dreamshade, but as we have positive memories of that meeting we were only happy to get the chance to see them again.

Dreamshade was the first band of the festival, and played on the Rock Stage, and gathered before them stood 12 persons anxious to get an early dose of metal. Yes, dear readers, 12 persons. The problem here was probably that the gates for the festival area had opened only a short moment earlier and everyone was still piled up in a queue outside. As more and more people got through the crowd at the stage also steadily increased, and for good reasons; Dreamshade was kicking ass as an opener!
Admittedly, at first I didn’t think them as wild as I remembered them, especially singer/frontman Iko Castelli was not jumping around as much and that sort of thing, but given just a few songs to warm up in, and they were performing at full throttle again. This increase of energy was clearly reflected in the growing crowd.

“It’s getting better song by song but now I really wanna see some violence!”
- Iko Castelli (vocals)

Castelli called for violence, and violence was what he got, in a good way of course. Already during the third song, As Serenity Falls, there was an obvious increase in the amount of attending metalheads, during the fourth Castelli got a circlepit started up, and a little later he also got us doing a wall of death which kicked the dust up of the ground!
In general, the band-members connection with the crowd was what really lifted this show above your average metal concert. Castelli was constantly getting people to shout with him or applauding along to the rhythm; bassist Ivan Moccia was smiling a lot and occasionally threw plectres or water bottles out into the crowd, and the rest of the guys were going at it hard with headbanging and such activities.
That all of this worked well with the audience was not to be mistaken; as soon as they got off people began shouting for an encore. This moved the band enough to come back on stage, take a bow and throw more equipment like plectres, drum sticks and setlists out, but Castelli indicated that there was no more time to play in. Still, shouts for their return could be heard even after Sons Of Seasons, the next band, had begun playing on the other stage…

If you haven’t gathered as much yet, Dreamshade was the perfect choice for an opening act; for those who got in to see them they really gave the party a hard push in the right direction. Definitely worth checking out if they pop up near you in the future.

Setlist:

Miles Away
Eternal
As Serenity Falls
DeGeneration
Revive In Me
What Silence Hides
Wide Awake