The Subs announce brand new album ‘Substance’

It’s clear. The world has lost religion. Not the institutionalised version that will be used to manipulate people. NO. We lost spiritualism. We lost touch with the truth inside. Everyone sees the world differently and that’s so beautiful, but there is a truth that is unshakable, unspeakable. The truth that permeates all things. Call it the laws of the universe. Call it GOD. We call it 

SUBSTANCE 

‘Life is both harsh and tender. Chaotic and sacred. Beautiful and ugly. Substance embraces it all.’ – The Subs

The Subs return with Substance, their first full-length album in 10 years – a powerful and deeply spiritual dance record that explores the essence of life in a world drowning in distraction.

Outward movement while moving inward. For The Subs, dance is meditation: a physical path to awareness, a place where ego dissolves and connection takes over. In a time of endless scrolling and surface-level noise, Substance invites listeners back to the body, back to rhythm, back to presence.

In a world that is burning beyond control, Substance is about the source: the invisible thread that connects humans to nature, to each other, to the universe, and to their innermost being. It is a reminder that beneath the performance and the digital haze, there is something real.

We call it Substance.

In an era where truth is distorted and meaning outsourced, The Subs turn inward. The album asks a radical question: What if the truth is not out there, but inside us? What if the essence we are searching for is the very same essence the universe is made of?

Substance is the shock of being alive.

It is a spiritual journey, not into silence, but into rhythm. On the dance floor, repetition becomes release. Movement becomes transcendence. The collective pulse becomes a shared awakening.

Sonically, Substance is unmistakably a dance album. Club-driven, psychedelic and high-impact at its core, yet layered with depth and soul. The album fuses raw rave intensity with a transcendental soundscape, shaped by analogue synths and expressive live instruments. The clarinet marks a personal return to his musical origins for producer and songwriter Jeroen De Pessemier (One Track Brain), while the erhu and sanshin – collected through years of travel and fascination with ancient musical traditions – infuse the record with timeless resonance and depth. Expressive, layered vocals add emotional weight, while organic textures collide with driving basslines. The result is an immersive, physical soundscape: dance music with awareness, club music with dimension and musicality that rises from the roots of civilisation and surges forward into the future.

The first singles – “Buckle Up”, “Where We Belong,” and “Another Chance” feat. Roméo Elvis – set the tone: explosive, emotional, and unapologetically direct. Each track reveals a different facet of the album’s duality, balancing raw club power with introspective depth.

Musically and emotionally, the album embodies profound duality. It is poetic yet loud, intimate yet explosive. It moves between playful energy and epic intensity, between brutal honesty and fragile beauty. Like Yin and Yang, it balances light and dark, brightness and shadow. Because duality is not a contradiction, but the very nature of existence.

Next up is “A Story Called Love,” scheduled for release on April 17, continuing the journey into vulnerability, intensity and connection.

Visually, the album mirrors this tension. Bold typography clashes with poetic abstraction. Light collides with darkness. Vibrant hues confront muted tones. The artwork becomes a visual manifestation of the album’s core philosophy: the harmony within opposition, the essence of existence.

With Substance, The Subs deliver an experience that is intense yet reflective, confrontational yet cathartic. A spiritual journey inward, at full volume, on the dancefloor.

Because in the end, the world does not need more noise.
It needs awareness.
It needs presence.
It needs surrender to the pulse that connects all.

And the essence we are looking for has been within us all along.

The Subs is a Belgian electronic music band founded in 2006 by producer Jeroen De Pessemier (aka One Track Brain) and DJ Wiebe Loccufier (aka DJ Tonic). Known for fusing punk attitude with raw rave intensity, they have grown into one of Belgium’s most dynamic and enduring electronicacts. In 2021, following the release of their hit “I Want To Dance Again”, Hazel-Aylin Feizula (aka OGENN) joined the band, adding a powerful new vocal and creative dimension to their evolving sound.

From early underground anthems like “You Make Me Spill” and “Substracktion” to the breakout hit “Kiss My Trance” (2008), supported by Boys Noize, Laurent Garnier and Tiësto, The Subs quickly established their signature blend of energy, melody and edge. Gold records followed with “The Pope of Dope” and “The Face of the Planet,” alongside albums such as Subculture, Decontrol (2011) and Hologram (2014), proving their ability to balance rave intensity with emotional depth.

Across two decades, The Subs have continuously reinvented themselves: from the anniversary release A Decade of Dance (2016) to raw-rooted singles like “UFO,” “Blank” (with Glints), “Flesh & Bones” (with Tsar B), and collaborations with Yves Deruyter, Amber Broos and Reinier Zonneveld. In 2021, “I Want to Dance Again” became a post-pandemic anthem, culminating in a sold-out Sportpaleis show in Antwerp that reunited over 18,000 fans on the dancefloor.

The Subs is like nature: it grows, and it grows on you. Unboxing genres without losing identity, constantly evolving while remaining unmistakably itself. It’s about connection. About transcendence. About being present and welcoming all things: light and dark alike.

Now, after 10 years without a full-length album, The Subs return with Substance: a deeply spiritual and concept-driven record rooted in Daoist and Stoic philosophy. The first singles, “Buckle Up’,  “Where We Belong”, and “Another Chance” feat. Roméo Elvis, mark the beginning of this new era, with “A Story Called Love” set for release on April 17. The album explores duality, resilience and the search for essence in a distracted world.

This release coincides with a profound personal chapter: The release of Substance marks not only a musical return after 10 years, but a deeply personal milestone: frontman Jeroen De Pessemier and frontwoman Hazel-Aylin Feizula are welcoming a baby together around the album’s launch.

With electrifying performances across Europe, the UK, Australia, Japan, China and Singapore, The Subs have built a solid live reputation as one of the most explosive shows in the electronic scene,staying true to their underground spirit while pushing European dance music forward.

Like nature, The Subs expand: unstoppable, untamed, alive.