Frontliner

Frontliner is one of hardstyle’s most durable names, a Dutch producer who has stayed relevant across three eras of the sound. Born Barry Drooger, he built his reputation on versatility: euphoric anthems, harder cuts and festival singalongs all live in the same catalogue, which is why he has never been boxed into a single corner of hardstyle.

From Abject to Frontliner

Drooger started producing in 2005 under the alias Abject, releasing on Scantraxx, the label that shaped early hardstyle, where he worked alongside Headhunterz on his earliest collaborations. Label founder The Prophet suggested a new name, Frontliner, after a comic book he came across while touring Australia. From 2008 the Frontliner alias took over, and sets at Defqon.1 and Reverze quickly turned him into a headline act.

Keep It Up and the melody-first signature

In 2012 Frontliner left Scantraxx to launch his own label, Keep It Up. The years around that move produced the music he is still best known for, none more enduring than ‘Halos’ with vocalist John Harris, a euphoric anthem that showed his instinct for a hook. That instinct, melody as the main event rather than an afterthought, became his signature and kept his tracks feeling like songs built to be sung back rather than just another drop.

Back at Scantraxx, still shipping anthems

Frontliner later returned to Scantraxx and launched This Is Hardstyle, an imprint built around the euphoric side of the genre. He has held a steady release pace deep into the 2020s: HDRR’s tracked catalogue includes his Nexus 2026 anthem ‘No Receta’, the NLCK collaboration ‘We Dance’, and 2025 singles such as ‘RUNNING 2 U’ and ‘Endless Summer’. Few producers have stayed this productive, and this melodic, for this long.

Every new Frontliner release lands on the Hardstyle Release Radar the day it hits Spotify. The full tracked catalogue is listed above.