Hardwell strengthens Dancing Astronaut’s 2022 Album of the Year with deluxe edition of ‘Rebels Never Die’Creamfieldsvn22 106

Hardwell strengthens Dancing Astronaut’s 2022 Album of the Year with deluxe edition of ‘Rebels Never Die’

24 hours had yet to even pass—by design on our part—before Hardwell widened the real estate of Dancing Astronaut‘s recently crowned 2022 Album of the Year. A deluxe edition of Rebels Never Die had been in the cards dating back to as early as June when the Revealed Recordings boss confirmed during his Reddit AMA that his comeback outing wouldn’t come to a ceasefire following its title track’s conversion from Ultra ID to the album’s grand finale. And Hardwell put it in writing during an exclusive sitdown with Dancing Astronaut just ahead of his UBS Arena appearance—the week following the conclusion of the album’s biweekly downpour—that it would include several reworks he’d been crowd-testing since Ultra as well as the potential of additional solo works, considering he narrowed down Rebels Never Die from an original bank of “30 or 40 tracks.”

With his invincible comeback calendar almost in the books, Hardwell has now formally dropped the curtain on what that Rebels Never Die expansion would look like. Having previously been shared as a Revealed Discord exclusive on SoundCloud immediately following that forenamed Reddit session, the “Spaceman” rework—celebrating its 10th birthday in 2022—makes it requested jump over to streaming platforms. And it’s joined by a fitting Rebels Never Die rework of his iconic anthem with Blasterjaxx and Mitch Crown, “Bigroom Never Dies”—which took many by pleasant surprise when it first touched down during his Jerusalem set—as well as an update of one of Hardwell’s final pre-hiatus outings, “Retrograde.” As promised, Hardwell also dips into the pile of originals that just missed the album cut for “Oh Gosh”—which debuted back at Creamfields—which places yet another healthy layer atop his bigroom-techno lineage and could have easily lived upon the original LP. But the most surprising of the early holiday gifts via the Rebels Never Die deluxe edition is, without question, the official release of a fan-favorite moment from Ultra: Hardwell’s mashup of “F*CKING SOCIETY” versus Metallica’s “Nothing Else Matters.” And all five selections play their respective roles in further heightening Rebels Never Die—which now extends to 19 tracks—and why it ultimately founded our unanimous decision for Dancing Astronaut‘s 2022 Album of the Year.

Featured image: Rukes

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