“Every year, Supremacy sets the bar high for the indoor season”

By Sharon van der Werf 04 October 2023

Every year, Supremacy sets the tone for the indoor season for real RAW enthusiasts. No more wandering around a large festival site, but just one impressive stage with the best raw hardstyle DJs of the moment. With various firsts and new live acts, Supremacy was again the place to be this year. Sharon from Hard News was there to take on the battle with AI.

When the Supremacy timetable was announced, I was sure that I wanted to be present in the Brabanthallen for Zyon immediately at 1:00 PM. This Italian DJ is not (yet) often found on a main stage, but has recently released good records that I would like to hear live. One of the great things about Supremacy is that the doors open well before the start of the event. So at that time you walk straight to a locker without any hassle, you don’t have to queue for coins, and you arrive in plenty of time at the immense main stage where around 15,000 people will be standing around you later in the afternoon.

With songs like ‘Take Me‘ and ‘CHASING STARS’, Zyon provides an excellent start to the day. The atmosphere is really good when he starts a remix of the song ‘Tattoo’ by Loreen. This one is particularly popular with the ladies – this is of course the perfect song to sing along out of tune.

Level One’s Reversed Reality

By the time it’s Level One‘s turn with his live act Reversed Reality, the room is already quite full. It’s clear: everyone wants to give their all throughout the day. Of course Level One plays the title track of his live act, but ‘Revolution’ and a Supremacy edit of ‘Men of Steel’ are also featured. Towards the end of the set, the pace is increased considerably with ‘Blackout’, ‘Dominate’ and, of course, the recently released ‘Hardcore Rebel’, featuring Never Surrender and Boogshe, is blasted through the speakers.

Supremacy 2023 rave love stage

By the way, we have to talk about the stage – normally I think the Supremacy stages are always very similar, but this year the stage designers seem to have done their best to reflect the underlying theme, the battle against AI. come on stage. Every time I re-enter the main hall of the Brabanthallen after a meal break, it feels like I’m being sucked into the mainframe of Supremacy. The red tubes hanging over the entire stage further enhance this effect. Several live acts, such as Sub Zero Project presents Psychodelic Bad Trip live and Sickmode & Mish presents Rave Love, make excellent use of the screens incorporated into the large stage.

Back to the supreme with Rebelion presents Overdose: The Second Dose

The lights go out at 4:00 PM. It’s time for the anthem show, this year provided by the men of Rebelion. As we would expect from an anthem show, there is a lot going on. The stage will take to the air with fireworks and the well-known rainbow lasers that belong to Overdose. The stage slowly moves forward, over the audience, while the anthem ‘Raw Resurgence‘ ensures that the energy of the audience is at maximum capacity early in the afternoon.

We are then treated to half an hour of well-known Overdose songs (such as ‘Das Ist Kein Techno Bitch‘ and the TOZA remix of ‘Wall Of Fucking Death‘) and new edits (of edits, that new ‘Bassline Junkie‘ edit!). I am pleasantly surprised when I hear that ‘Opening Statements’ has been given a Second Dose edit with Warface, and my jaw drops in surprise when I hear a Kruelty remix of ‘End Game‘. ‘Bonkerz’ is also being played, but as soon as I hear “Wait, you thought we were just going to play the original?” Through the speakers, I already know what time it is. Time for the Decibel edit! After the song ‘Crash The System’ by Rebelion, The Dark Horror and Dimitri K, all visitors to Supremacy received their Second Dose. Back to the supreme, bitch!

Supremacy 2023 rebelion

It is difficult for Killshot to get over the violence of Overdose, but with, among other things, ‘Making History’ and an edit of ‘Day For Night’ with Act of Rage, he delivers a strong opening to his set. “Supremacy, it’s so good to be back,” he shouts into the microphone. The energy he gives on stage is unparalleled. He jumps, kickrolls and has a lot of interaction with the audience.

Halfway through the set, a special guest comes on stage. “This is the most special person I can ever bring to the stage,” he says as he lifts his daughter June during an edit of “High On Life” by Martin Garrix. It is beautiful to see the tears (of happiness) running down his cheeks.

New live acts on the timetable

Next up are two brand new live acts on the schedule: Sub Zero Project presents Psychodelic Bad Trip live and Deluzion presents Paranoid. During Sub Zero Project‘s set we are treated to spectacular visuals, where we see a gnome eating a bad mushroom. Then the bad trip begins, complete with trippy visuals, bright lights and colorful lasers. We get to hear kicks that we are not necessarily used to from Sub Zero Project. New songs, but also an edit of ‘Basstrain’ with screeches that go straight through your soul.

Supremacy 2023 sub zero project

The guys from Deluzion have a scoop at Supremacy: they are playing their live act Paranoid for the first time and it is so good that we wrote a separate article about it. You can read it here: Deluzion leaves an indelible impression with live act Paranoid at Supremacy.

Warface starts his set strong with a Supremacy edit of ‘One’ by Swedish House Mafia. He knows how to completely excite the audience with his tracks. He smoothly mixes ‘Rest in Pieces‘ into ‘Taste The Blade’, and during ‘Dead End’ with Riot Shift we are treated to quite a few fireworks. A highlight is the song ‘P S Y C H O’, where the vocals are shouted along by approximately 15,000 people. An unexpected song during Warface’s set is the Overdose edit of ‘Beyond Aggression’. The set then closes with ‘LEVITATE’ and the Warface bootleg of ‘In The Stars‘ by Benson Boone. “Can I get an ooooo yeah” for this set?

Bloodlust presents The Assassination

After a hard set by The Purge, where he seamlessly blends old kicks and new songs with Beyond Trippin’, Bloodlust‘s set completely blows me away. It is the first time he has performed his live act ‘The Assassination’, and I am impressed. The songs ‘Miracle‘, ‘Lonely’ and ‘Bound By Blood’ with Unresolved, among others, are performed, while the stage lights are clearly set to red and orange.

The saw kicks of ‘Feed Your Soul’ ensure a lot of approving faces in the audience, and we haven’t even mentioned the edits of ‘Get Up’ (with Regain) and ‘Deathblow’ (with E-Force). After 30 minutes of blasting, it ends with an Assassination edit of ‘Lose Control’. “Supremacy you have been assassinated,” sounds through the speakers, and that is exactly how I feel after this grueling set.

The atmosphere during the last hardstyle set of the evening, that of Unresolved, is one that we will be talking about for a long time. The atmosphere in the Brabanthallen during that set is unparalleled. He starts with a Supremacy tool, which lifts the DJ booth back up. The fact that the event is almost over is not noticeable to the people in the room. Everyone is still happily jumping around to the best RED BLOOD edits such as ‘We Won’t Die‘ and the collab ‘Undefeatable’ with Uncaged.

Supremacy 2023 Unresolved

This year the closing of the event is in Barber‘s hands. With songs like ‘Anger In The Nation‘ and ‘Paradise’, Barber manages to summarize exactly what Supremacy is all about: hard pounding. With a bunch of great tracks, including the brand new anthem for Snakepit 2023, he ensures that everyone can lose that last bit of energy.

After ten hours of raving, stomping and bursting lungs, we have won the much-discussed battle against AI. “As a united front, we were able to overwrite the system and let it collapse from within. Thank you for your supreme dedication to our movement,” sounds through the speakers. It’s time to put the first major indoor event of the year behind us and head home. Time to get ready for next year – because then we have an anniversary. Next year Supremacy will celebrate its tenth anniversary, and we are already looking forward to being there again.

Pictures via Facebook-page Supremacy

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De line-up van Supremacy was dit jaar erg verfrissend. Ondanks dat we een paar echte Supremacy-namen misten op de line-up, hebben we wel flink wat nieuwe live-acts gezien. Het thema kwam enorm goed terug in het design van de stage, en dit werd uiteraard aangevuld met toffe visuals en een goede lichtshow. Daarnaast zijn feesten in de Brabanthallen altijd een succes – de locatie is groot opgezet en makkelijk te bereiken, zowel met de auto als met het OV.