EVENT: Malmö Melodic Festival July 25th – 27th 2025
VENUE: Plan B, Malmö
WORDS: MetalMike71
PHOTOS: Brian Ronald
DATE: Day 3 – July 27, 2025
MALMO MELODIC WEBSITE / FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM
This is MetalMike71‘s account of the events of Malmo Melodic 2025 during day 3 of the festival, with photography by Brian Ronald for CGCM Rock Radio/Website. Days 1 and 2 can be found through these links:
….and now, day #3 of Malmo Melodic 2025
HOUSE OF SHAKIRA (VIP)
On the last day, the band House Of Shakira was playing as the VIP band already at 12.00 AM. I must say I have not listened to their music that much before and I won’t do it after this either. They blend melodic hard rock with Middle Eastern influences and some bands do that really well, but I personally did not enjoy this too much.
For the fans, I think they had a cool show with movies in the background and they had their first singer helping them out on vocals to get great choirs. Songs to mention are “Morning Over Morocco“, “In Your Head” and “Method Of Madness“.
PITTMAN COLE
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This is a new band from Malmö and what is there to say? They don’t fit on the festival is my first thought. This is a band that could be described as a weird mix of all things rock and strange songs. I lasted for three songs to see what it was but, not good for me. Sorry. It was better to talk to friends from around the world and meet new ones as well.
DAYTONA
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Another new Swedish band with members from Miss Behaviour and Osukaru and others. They formed in 2022 and have released one album in late 2024 and have received good reviews. This is on the softer side of AOR and they have a classic sound from the 80s. They sounded good and the audience showed them love through their 9-song set. They played a cover version of “Inside Information” from Foreigner too. Good sound overall and a great guitarist in Erik Heikne. They seem to have a bright future in the melodic rock scene. Their best songs, I thought, were “Kelly“, “Looks Like Rain“, “Slave To The Rhythm” and “Where Did We Lose the Love“.
RIAN
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Rian is also a Swedish band, surprise surprise, and they released their debut album in 2017 (Out Of The Darkness). This was a pleasant surprise to me. I had listened to their albums prior to the festival, but wow, did they sound good live! With a perfect voice for this type of Melodic hard rock from Richard Andermyr and the soaring guitars from Tobias Jakobsson, they delivered one hell of a good show.
“Carry My Wings” is a great set opener which reminds me a bit of Stage Dolls soundwise. Awesome chorus and great guitars in that song. They played 10 songs and there were no fillers, just killers. The second song, “We Ride“, is another smash hit. This was an awesome show and I really hope I will have the chance to see them live again. As I said, just pure gold songs through the set, but I can mention “Carry My Wings“, “We Ride“, “In The Dark“, “Out Of The Darkness” and “Eternity“.
NITRATE
Nitrate is a British melodic rock band and they were formed in 2015 by the bass player Nick Hogg. I heard that they lost some members in the band prior to the festival, but they managed to hire some new members so they could come and play for us in Malmö. The singer is the well-known Swedish guy Alexander Strandell, who also sings in Art Nation and Crowne. The guitar player was Marcus Thurston from the band VEGA. He was great and so was the rest of the band this evening. They seemed very happy to be there and play live. The audience knew the songs and sang with them loudly throughout their set. Halfway through the show, they played an Art Nation song, “Need You To Understand“, which was cool and very appreciated by the audience.
When they had played their last song, “Big City Lights“, they went off stage and the DJ music came on, but suddenly they came back on stage and kicked into the song “Kiss Of Life” from the band VEGA and the singer Nick Workman came on stage and sang the song with them. This was a big surprise to everyone, but very cool to hear. Songs to mention from Nitrate were “Renegade“, “All The Right Moves“, “Need A Little Love“, “Wild In The City” and “Big City Lights“.
CRAZY LIXX
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The Swedish sleaze rock band Crazy Lixx are from Malmö and the singer, Danny Rexon, told us that when they started out as a band, they rehearsed just a few hundred meters away from Plan B. I thought to myself, is this really their kind of audience? Oh yeah! The audience went crazy for them and sang all the songs and the cheers in between the songs were really loud. They are now a really great live band and fun to watch and they have so many good songs too. Danny’s voice sounded really good and the band were on fire.
They played 11 songs and all kicked ass. It seemed a bit short and there were some delays between the bands, so I think they had to cut their set short. Great songs were “Hell Raising Women“, “Little Miss Dangerous“, “Silent Thunder“, “Sword and Stone” (Bonfire cover), “21 Til I Die“, “Blame It On Love” and “Who Said Rock n Roll Is Dead“. Even the outro was great, it was the KISS song “Crazy Crazy Nights” but they had changed it into “Crazy Crazy Lixx“. Awesome.
KISSIN’ DYNAMITE
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The last band out were Kissin’ Dynamite from Germany and I had never seen them live before, so I was looking forward to the show. They started with the great song “Back With A Bang!” and what an amazing show they delivered. I think they had not expected to get such a warm welcome from the audience as they did. The chant after the first song was amazing. I thought for a second that I was at a big stadium and watching one of the biggest bands in the world. The audience went crazy and the reception made the singer smile from ear to ear. This was one of the best shows I have seen in a long time. The last two songs, “You’re Not Alone” and “Raise Your Glass“, are two amazing stadium rock numbers and I left the building with no voice left. Best songs in their set were “Back With A Bang“, “DNA“, “My Monster“, “The Devil Is A Woman“, “Not The End Of The World“, “You’re Not Alone” and “Raise Your Glass“. Amazing end to an amazing weekend.
FINAL WORDS…..UNTIL 2026!
When I was sitting here and writing my report, I got the information that the Early Bird VIP tickets for 2026 are sold out already! The organizers in Wind Up Production are doing such great work and all the people coming from around the world have had such an amazing weekend and everyone is so kind to each other. I am really looking forward to next summer’s edition of Malmö Melodic.
If you are a fan of AOR/Melodic hard rock, this is the festival to go to.
Hope to see you there!
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
