• Songs with a great atmosphere
• Some dreamy and amazing vocals
• Intensive kicks

Written by our fan Antonio. Thank you!

Exploding into the spotlight as one of the most exciting, energetic and evolutionary artists in Hard Dance – Sub Zero Project have catapulted themselves into the A-game!

Musically, they fit into no specific box as they prove themselves time and again as one of the most innovative producers of the past year. Hits such as “The Project” and “Basstrain” destroyed dance floors everywhere they’re dropped. With their futurist stance on the whole Hard genre, they’ve opened doors for both themselves and their sound gaining collaborations with artists such as Headhunterz, Atmozfears, Da Tweekaz and scoring massive hits with their many remixes.

Today, I will be talking about their newest work “Contagion”, released past Friday. Consisting of ten songs, here are my thoughts accumulated about each one of them.

1. Patient Zero
75/100

Those kicks in the mid-intro are mind-blowing, having the same pattern as that kick in “The Project” or “The XPRMNT“. Climax is decent, good melody… Nasty bass embedded as well. The melody is in line with those from the two cited tunes. In my opinion, that’s one of better tracks of the album.

2. The Clock (the Darkest Hour) (ft. D-Block & S-Te-Fan)
90/100

The collaboration with the famous Dutch duo is kinda overplayed, but it’s a masterpiece for me. The surprising climax in the second part feels quite effective. The kick is obviously more “SZP style”, with a bit of DBSTF influence in the melody. I must underlines the angelic vocal tone utilized in the instrumental. The perfect ending of “The Ghost stories” Trilogy for DBSTF!

3. The Contagion (ft. Christina Novelli)
80/100

“The Contagion” is the title track, and has been already reviewed in a past article, so I have few things to add here. I particularly appreciated the vocals from Christina Novelli, simply fantastic. The melody is awesome, emanating a trance-y feeling. In the end, the kicks fit well with the other components.

4. Break The Game (ft. Keltek)
40/100

Here we can listen to one of the most aggressive mid-intros compared to others on this list. The collaboration is promising, and I hope it’s not the last one: it’s kinda overly preachy as “Amen” on this album. The theme revolves around “Rebelling against the evil government, that pits citizens against each other”, quite a clichè in the hardstyle world, but significant. This gave a rather unnecessary political feel though. Secondly, the melody presented a gospel-like structure, and “Amen” is enough for me with that atmosphere. I have mixed feelings about this one.

5. Be My Guide
50/100

Particular dreamy vocals lead the way into this composition. We begin with a one-minute long buildup, which delays and compensates the waiting with a nice and sublime melody as the vocals, slightly ruined with the crunchy and aggressive sounding kick layered under it. I don’t know what they were thinking about it, there’s a tone of a gated kick or gated-like kicks, but they decided to go with this idea, which to some ends sound amateurish.

6. Call Of The Sacred (ft. Phuture Noize)
70/100

“Call Of The Sacred” has been the most over-hyped song on the album. I know that many would disagree, but, for me, SZP and Phuture Noize could have done a much better job. The concept is fine, similar to “Be My Guide”: the first climax is elevating (it could be longer, considering the buildup’s length). while the second section still misses out on something.

7. Amen (ft. Headhunterz)
80/100

A nice follow-up to the “Our Church”! The kick and melody work well together, not gonna lie. I would say the same about the atmosphere, except for that constant “Amen” chant: repetitive, it threatens to ruin it. It reminds me of a quote from the film “Kingdom of Heaven”.

8. The Source (ft. Frequencerz)
40/100

I hate to say it, but “The Source” dispirited me, simply because I didn’t find exciting components in sight. Both producers can deliver high-quality hardstyle, but this isn’t the case… The rhythm tries way too hard to catch that anthemic vibe, while deviating from delivering something special. I certainly had way too much expectations about this team-up.

9. All Night (ft. Bryant Powell)
76/100

I suspected this one to be along with MYST, due to the more aggressive kicks and the “MYST-y style” of the lead. It’s vigorous, the vocals are soothing and dreamy even if the lyrics left with a bittersweet taste in my mouth. The melody is energetic, original and fresh. The ending outro anticlimax shows an awesome kick, with a slight shift in uptempo.

10. The Solution (ft. Villain)
60/100

The repeated doomsday theme is a minus. Aside from that, the production does well, taking inspiration from frenchcore and I:Gor’s “Straight Outta Kielce” for the kicks. Melody is perfectly fine: nothing memorable, but fitting nonetheless. Take away the vocals and it’s one amazing (and brutal) song for “Contagion”.

What's Your Reaction?

0In Love0Happy0Not Sure0OMG0Angry0Sad