Sub Zero Project

Sub Zero Project
Sub Zero Project at Defqon.1 2017
Background information
Also known as	SZP
Origin	Netherlands
Genres	Euphoric hardstyle hardstyle rawstyle
Years active	2013–present
Labels	Dirty Workz Scantraxx WE R Music Q-Dance Records Rave Culture Spinnin' Records Sinphony Revealed Recordings Tomorrowland Music
Members	Thomas Velderman Nigel Coppen
Website	Official website

Sub Zero Project is a Dutch hardstyle producer duo, consisting of Thomas Velderman (born 19 April 1996) and Nigel Coppen (born 9 March 1997). They are known for making raw hardstyle with their signature "psy-style" kicks,¹ and have been signed to Dirty Workz (or associated sublabels) since 2014.

Sub Zero Project's most popular hits include "Our Church", "Darkest Hour (The Clock)", "Trip To Mars (Astronauts)" and "It Will Be Ok" . They have performed at several popular hardstyle and EDM festivals, including Tomorrowland, Electric Daisy Carnival, Defqon.1 Festival, Ultra Music Festival and Qlimax.² Sub Zero Project have many collaborations with other artists, including Timmy Trumpet, Hardwell, Vini Vici, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike and Headhunterz.

Nigel Coppen initially made music under the name Sub Zero. He came into contact with Thomas Velderman via YouTube; they listened to each other's tracks and then decided to work together. Velderman joined Coppen and "Project" was added to the name to clarify that it was a duo.³ In December 2013, at the ages of 16 and 17 respectively, Nigel and Thomas signed with the Belgian hardstyle record label Dirty Workz.

The pair released their first two official projects with Dirty Workz (under their Anarchy label) in 2014, titled "Scream" and "Let's Fight" respectively. Both EPs contained 3 tracks each.⁴

In 2017 Nigel and Thomas both graduated from the Herman Brood Academy, a production school in Utrecht, as Artist Musician Dance Producers. The same year they released "The Project", which led to them receiving widespread attention for their use of psy-style kicks with aggressive attacks, blended with hardstyle elements.¹ They have since opened up about their interest in psytrance⁵, and have since put out several releases which explicitly reference the psy elements of their music (e.g., Psychopath, LFG Psycho and Sweet But Psycho).⁴

In 2018 the duo released "The XPRMNT", which as well came with a new live act featuring a change in attire. Q-Dance chose the duo to create the Qlimax 2018 anthem, titled "The Game Changer".⁶ In 2019, the duo released "The Contagion", which served as the lead track for their debut album titled Contagion.⁷ They described the theme of their debut album: "... we want to infect the world with the Sub Zero Project 'virus’", referring to the title of the album and their explosion of their "viral" popularity in the hardstyle scene.⁸

In 2021, popular releases from Sub Zero Project included "Trip to Mars (Astronauts)" and "HALO", which ranked 1st and 2nd respectively in the Q-Dance annual Top 100 Hardstyle tracks of 2021. They also had two more songs in the Top 10, and became the 2nd artist (after Headhunterz) to win the competition more than once.⁹ In July 2022, Sub Zero Project released their 2nd album titled Renaissance of Rave, which included the aforementioned tracks.¹⁰ The cover art pays homage to Leonardo Da Vinci's painting, The Last Supper, to bolster the Renaissance theming.¹¹ The album's theme was a tribute to the return of full time performances and music festivals in 2022, following a prolonged period of event restrictions in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns.¹²

After being invited to create the anthem for Qlimax in 2018, and playing at "The Spotlight" at Defqon in 2022, Q-Dance re-invited the duo to create the anthem for Defqon.1's 2023 edition.¹³ "The Path of the Warror", sharing the title with the theme of the edition, was released in February 2023,¹⁴ four months before the festival. In February 2023, they also debuted their latest live act "Psychodelic" at Reverze Festival.¹⁵

Later in 2023, the duo played their own show for the first time, "All For One". The show included elements of some of their previous live acts: Contagion, Rave Into Space, Renaissance of Rave, and Psychodelic. They also included a performance of their most recent live act: Bad Trip.¹⁶ Following the success of their first solo show, which sold 7500 tickets, they announced a follow-up event for 2024, titled "All In One". "All In One" brought together all of their previous live acts, including The Project, The XPRMNT, the acts from "All For One" the year prior, and Robot Ravolution - their most recent act.¹⁷

"Our World" was announced in 2025, with the duo taking their newest combination live-act on tour towards the end of 2025 and into 2026. Their latest act has four distinct themes instead of one,¹⁸ and was first played at the end of October 2025.¹⁹ They released the title track of the act in May 2026.²⁰

Australian House DJ Timmy Trumpet has maintained his support of the hardstyle genre, incorporating harder sounds into his sets and collaborating frequently with hardstyle artists.²¹ He has collaborated with Sub Zero Project on five separate occasions since 2018, with the following tracks:

• 2018: Rockstar (feat. DV8) - Released on Spinnin' Records
• 2020: Project X - Released on Timmy Trumpet's SINPHONY Records
• 2022: Soft Ass Shit - Part of Sub Zero Project's 2022 Album Renaissance of Rave
• 2023: The Race (with Vini Vici) - Released on Tomorrowland Music
• 2025: Move Your Body (with Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike) - Released on Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike's Smash The House⁴

Sub Zero Project and longstanding hardstyle duo D-Block and S-Te-Fan (performing as their darker themed act "Ghost Stories")²² released their first collaboration "Darkest Hour (The Clock)" in March 2019.²³ The song enjoyed much popularity amongst the hardstyle community, being voted the winner of the Q-Dance annual Top 100 Hardstyle tracks at the end of the year.²⁴ "Darkest Hour (The Clock)" also ended up placing #12 in Q-Dance's Dediqated 2020 event - where fans and attendees voted for the top hardstyle tracks of all time.²⁵

At the final edition of Qlimax in late 2024, Sub Zero Project and D-Block & S-Te-Fan both played sets, recognising both acts' contributions to hardstyle music and the history of the festival. At the end of Sub Zero Project's set, they were joined by D-Block & S-Te-Fan to premiere "Change to Follow".²⁶ "Change to Follow" was released in March of the following year, under the latter duo's Scantraxx record label.²⁷

In 2026, a collaborative project with D-Block & S-Te-Fan titled 4444OFAKIND was announced. 4444OFAKIND debuted at Reverze Festival in February, and are booked to play at many festivals, including Defqon.1 and Parookaville.²⁸ They have released no new music at the time of writing, although several original tracks have been heard in their sets to date.

In April 2023, the duo collaborated with EDM producer Hardwell, producing "Judgement Day". The song was the final song in a 6-song promotional series by Hardwell in early 2023.²⁹ Two years later, Sub Zero Project would reconnect with Hardwell to produce "Brace For Impact", with vocals from prominent crunk artist Lil Jon.³⁰ The song was first played as the closing track for Hardwell's Ultra Miami's 2025 Saturday closing set, before being released in October of the same year.³¹

Sub Zero Project collaborated with compatriot hardstyle duo Dual Damage, releasing "It Will Be Ok" in April 2025. The song was released to much fanfare at the time, containing a signature "kickroll" which Sub Zero Project described as "multiple fast kicks, put into one beat like a drum roll".⁵ Prior to the tracks release, Dual Damage had been popularising the "kickroll" as a concept, and both duos had been teasing this collaboration in their sets since the end of 2024. Critics describe the combination of the kickroll and melody as "seamlessly blended", and the song was well received by hardstyle fans - even prior to its official release.³² "It Will Be Ok" went on to win the 2025 Q-Dance annual Top-100 Hardstyle voting competition, ending a three year winning streak from former collaborator Headhunterz via his Project One act, who had to settle for second place.³³ It was Sub Zero Project's third time winning the award.

Mainstream popularity

In recent years, Sub Zero Project have started enjoying more popularity from mainstream EDM crowds, touring in countries and cities where hardstyle has not historically been popular. They have been booked at broader appeal EDM events rather than purely hardstyle festivals (including EDC Las Vegas, Electric Love and Amsterdam Music Fesitval).³⁴ In 2025, they followed Dirty Workz founder Coone³⁵ and label-mates Da Tweekaz and Mandy³⁶ to become the fourth hardstyle act to play on the Tomorrowland mainstage.³⁷

Unlike most other hardstyle producers, Sub Zero Project have collaborated with mainstream EDM artists such as Hardwell, Timmy Trumpet, W&W, Dimitri Vegas & Like Mike and Vini Vici, as well as the longstanding MC of Tomorrowland; MC Stretch.⁴ Hardstyle has long been perceived as "too intense" for casual listeners, but Sub Zero Project's successes has shown there is an appetite for harder forms of EDM in the mainstream. In an interview with EDM Nomad in 2025, they talked openly about how they were catering their sets to accommodate for new audiences:³⁷

"...the kind of music we produce and play is well-received by mainstream listeners. In fact, we’ve noticed that hard dance is becoming more and more mainstream. It’s also all about how you present the music. When we play for a new crowd, we definitely take that into consideration when preparing our set."

Sub Zero Project has made the DJ Mag Top 100 list – 95th in 2019,³⁸ and subsequent finishes outside the top 100 in later years. With mainstream interest in hardstyle re-emerging, and following their Tomorrowland Mainstage performance, the duo returned to the Top 100 list - placing 64th in 2025.³⁴

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