Stereotype

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.

Skullstep is an ultra-hard, industrial-tinged strain of drum and bass that pushes aggression and darkness to the forefront. Emerging from the mid-2000s Therapy Sessions circuit, it favors relentlessly heavy drums, sharply gated snares, and brutally distorted basslines over melody. The style borrows the mechanical precision of techstep and neurofunk, the ferocity of darkstep and hardstep, and the bleak textures of industrial and horror sound design. Tempos sit around 170–175 BPM, with hostile atmospheres, atonal hits, and tense cinematic swells that frame explosive drops and punishing switch-ups.