''Rebels Never Die'' is the second studio album by Dutch DJ and record producer
Hardwell
Robbert van de Corput (; born 7 January 1988), known professionally as Hardwell, is a Dutch DJ and music producer from Breda. He was voted the world's number one DJ by ''DJ Mag'' in 2013 and again in 2014. In 2022, he was ranked at number 43 in ...
. It was released on 9 September 2022 by his own record label,
Revealed Recordings.
History
On 7 September 2018, Hardwell had announced his indefinite hiatus from touring, stating that he wanted to focus more on his personal life. On March 27, 2022, he made his return to the dance scene by closing out the Ultra Miami 2022 festival as the rumored special guest. During his set, he played 13 IDs that introduced his new
bigroom-
techno
Techno is a genre of electronic dance music (EDM) which is generally produced for use in a continuous DJ set, with tempos being in the range from 120 to 150 beats per minute (bpm). The central rhythm is typically in common time ( ) and often ...
style and would be released as part of his upcoming album. Additionally, he played a 10-year anniversary remix of his song "
Spaceman".
On 1 April, Hardwell released the first two singles from the album, "Broken Mirror" and "Into the Unknown". "Broken Mirror" features a monologue from Hardwell, saying "...your opinion of me does not define who I am. Cause I know what you want me to be. Now, I'm gonna show you who I truly am." "Into the Unknown" was the first of the singles to introduce the bigroom-techno style of his album.
Hardwell released the IDs as singles from the album every two weeks. However, on 15 July, he released "Zero Gravity" a week after the album's previous single to generate excitement for his four-year return to
Tomorrowland Tomorrowland may refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media
* Tomorrowland (Disney Parks), a theme land at a number of Disney theme parks around the world
* Tomorrowland (festival), an annual electronic dance music festival in Boom, Belgium
* ''Tom ...
.
On 9 September, he released the ''Rebels Never Die'' album, featuring the last unreleased ID from his set, the titular song.
''Rebels Never Die'' appeared in
Dancing Astronaut
Dancing Astronaut is an American media platform founded in 2009 that primarily covers the electronic dance music industry. The website covers concerts and festivals, reports on entertainment news, reviews music, and publishes original content syn ...
's Top Dance Albums of 2022.
On 23 December, the deluxe version of ''Rebels Never Die'' was released. It features a new original, "Oh Gosh", three reworks of previous Hardwell songs, and a mashup of "F*cking Society" and
Metallica
Metallica is an American heavy metal band. It was formed in Los Angeles in 1981 by vocalist and guitarist James Hetfield and drummer Lars Ulrich, and has been based in San Francisco for most of its career. The band's fast tempos, instrume ...
's "
Nothing Else Matters".
Album description
Hardwell used his hiatus as an opportunity to explore creative freedom. He was inspired to create ''Rebels Never Die'' from a vinyl collection he listened to in his childhood.
The bigroom-techno sound of ''Rebels Never Die'' has been described as "future techno" and "
future rave". It is a bold switch-up from Hardwell's euphoric big room house style, replacing anthemic vocals with cerebral, spine-chilling samples.
Hardwell described the style of his album with:
Track listing
Charts
References
{{Authority control
Hardwell albums
2022 albums
Electronic dance music albums by Dutch artists