EVENT: Malmö Melodic Festival July 25th – 27th 2025
VENUE: Plan B, Malmö
WORDS: MetalMike71
PHOTOS: Brian Ronald
DATE: Day 2 – July 26, 2025
MALMO MELODIC WEBSITE / FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM
This is MetalMike71‘s account of the events of Malmo Melodic 2025 during day 2 of the festival, with photography by Brian Ronald for CGCM Rock Radio/Website. Day 1 can be found here, with Day 3 forthcoming.
MALMO MELODIC Day #2
The project/band Constancia was supposed to start the second day as the VIP band, but they had to cancel the show two weeks prior to the festival due to a family crisis for one of the members. They were replaced by a new sleaze rock band from Denmark named Animalyze.
ANIMALYZE
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Sleaze rock at an AOR festival? Yes, it worked out well as they have good songs with good melodies and sing-along choruses. They sounded like a mix between Mötley Crüe and KISS in the 80s and some songs were pretty close to sounding exactly like songs from these bands.
They had stage outfits that were a mix between Judas Priest leather and Mötley Crüe glam clothes. The guitar player was really good and had the right moves. They were fun to watch and I hope they will get their chance to play a lot. Good songs were “Hunter Of The Night“, “Wild For Free” and “Kings Of The Night“.
ARKADO
Next band was ARKADO from my hometown of Helsingborg and I even got to the festival by car together with the guitar player Patrik Svärd, who is a great friend of mine. I have seen them live once before, but it was some years ago, so I really looked forward to this.
When they started, I noticed they had an excellent sound, the best sound at the festival imo. Patrik and bass player Christer were smiling through the whole show and the audience was mesmerized by them. The singer Philip Lindstrand did an amazing show and sounded great. You could hear all the instruments clearly in the mix and it was not too loud.
ARKADO have released two albums so far and they mixed songs from both albums. A new one is on its way. “Don’t Rape The Nature” started the show, it continued with “Unchain The Night“, which rocks. The in-between talk from Philip was also very funny and he got the audience laughing and having a great time. One of the best shows of the festival. Great songs as “Don’t Rape The Nature“, “Unchain The Night“, “You Make Me Feel“, “I Gave My Heart“, “Open Sea“, “So Bad” and “Rising High” were played.
BREAK TIME
When you are at a festival, you sometimes forget to eat, but you have to have fuel, so it was time to go out for a food hunt. There was a food truck outside the venue that had some tasty Korean food, so we ordered some nice meals there.
VIOLET
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The band that was playing while we were out to eat was from Germany and their name is Violet. We came back in to see the last two songs and they sounded really good. I had listened to their album beforehand and was not that impressed, but it was a whole other sound live. Next time, I will see their whole show.
CARE OF NIGHT
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The band Care Of Night was back at the festival, but now as one of the “real” bands on the bill. Last year, they played as one of the “VIP” bands. Care Of Night has grown a big following of fans and they always deliver a solid show. I saw them even at last year’s Sweden Rock Festival and they have now released a live album from that show. Look it up, it rocks.
This time I did not have the same good feeling about their show, I think they had too long pauses in between the songs and they did not interact as much with the audience as they normally do. Maybe it was the heat on stage that took off some action from the band. They played 11 songs and the audience was really into it. I must admit that this year’s audience was awesome to most of the bands and gave it their all, singing along and clapping their hands. The best songs I thought were “Street Runner“, “Hit“, “Your Perfection“, “Melanie” and “Cassandra“.
DEGREED
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Now this was a great surprise to me. Their setlist this evening was awesome. From the first song, “Big Plans“, to their amazing cover and tribute to Ozzy Osbourne with “Bark At The Moon“, they delivered a blistering show and what a great voice Robin has. They were really happy to play at the festival and you could see that in their performance. All smiles and great delivery. They are a little heavier than most bands on this bill, but they have such good choruses and melodies in their songs. One of the best bands at the festival. Stand out tracks were “Big Plans“, “Shakedown“, “Are You Ready“, “Into The Fire“, “The Scam” and “Bark At The Moon“.
BROTHER FIRETRIBE
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When Brother Firetribe was about to start, I think everyone was in the house to watch them. This was one of the bands that most people were looking forward to the most because they do not play live outside their homeland, Finland, that often. I must be one of the few who are not that impressed with their music. Sorry to all the BF fans. I think their sound is too digital-sounding for me and almost Eurovision-like songwise.
The audience was wild, though and really liked what they heard and saw. The singer Pekka sings really well, but I think most of the songs sound the same. Sorry again. After some songs, I went outside and talked to friends instead, but I still heard the music through the doors. Some good songs I heard in “Just Another Night“, “Arianne” and “I Am Rock“.
TREAT
I have been listening to Treat since their first single in the mid-80s and I have seen them many times, but I always look forward to seeing and hearing them live again, as they are a fantastic live band. They now have many albums to choose songs from and we got to hear songs from their entire career. The opener “Skies Of Mongolia” sets the tone and it has heavy riffs from Anders Wikström and great singing from Robert Ernlund. You can tell that the audience has been waiting for this; they scream out every word in every song until something really cool happens.
After the song “Scratch And Bite“, Robert says that they got a request on Facebook from a fan asking if they could play a B-side song named “On The Outside” and so they did. The first time playing it live for us and it sounded great!
Their set consisted of 16 songs and their anthem “World Of Promises” ended the excellent show. I won’t mention specific songs from their set because every song is great!
MALMO MELODIC WEBSITE / FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM
Check out more of MetalMike71‘s articles on CGCM Rock Radio/Website: MetalMike71
Check out more of Brian Ronald‘s articles and photo galleries on CGCM Rock Radio/Website: Brian Ronald
