Grimoire of Crimson

Rawstyle is a darker, more aggressive offshoot of hardstyle characterized by heavily distorted "raw" kicks, abrasive screeches, tense atmospheres, and high-energy drops around 150 BPM. Compared to euphoric hardstyle, it favors harsher sound design, minor tonalities, and cinematic, ominous breakdowns over big melodic climaxes. Tracks typically feature punchy, multistage distorted kick-tails that are pitched to the key, frenetic kickrolls, and screech leads built from resonant filtering or FM synthesis with wide pitch bends. The overall aesthetic is gritty, intense, and built for large festival sound systems, emphasizing impact and dancefloor aggression.

Hardstyle is a high-energy form of electronic dance music built around a hard, four‑on‑the‑floor kick, tempos around 150 BPM, and a signature "reverse bass" that drives the groove. Sound design centers on heavily distorted, layered kicks that are pitched melodically, alongside harsh screeches and bright supersaw leads. Emerging at the turn of the millennium from the Netherlands with parallel scenes in Belgium and Italy, hardstyle fuses elements of techno, new beat, and hardcore/gabber with the euphoric breakdowns of trance. Over time it split into distinct currents, from euphoric, melody‑forward anthems to raw, industrial‑edged variations that emphasize aggression and texture.

Nu style gabber (often written as "newstyle gabber") is a late-1990s evolution of Dutch gabber/mainstream hardcore that slowed the frantic 180–200 BPM pace to roughly 150–165 BPM. The extra space in the groove foregrounds a heavy, overdriven kick with a long, compressed tail, sharp off‑beat hi‑hats, and simple, memorable minor‑key riffs. Producers frequently incorporate chopped vocal stabs, MC shouts, and film or news samples to build tension and atmosphere. Sonically it sits between classic 90s gabber and the first wave of hardstyle: it keeps the aggression and distortion of hardcore while adopting a more rolling, dance‑floor‑friendly swing and clearer breakdown/build‑up structures. This “bridge” character is why nu style gabber is widely cited as a direct precursor to early hardstyle, jumpstyle, and later nu‑style hardstyle.