2017 was a jubilee year full of comebacks for hardcore. In Holland, Thunderdome, the most renowned hardcore brand in the world, threw its first party in five years to mark its 25th anniversary. It was the largest indoor hardcore rave in recorded history. 40,000 fans descended upon the Jaarbeurs convention centre in Utrecht, soundtracked by hardcore past and present from over 80 artists and MCs. Marc Acardipane and DJ Paul Elstak were among the "heroes of hardcore" who played, and they've both had significant years. Acardipane, who made the track that started it all, officially brought his alias The Mover out of retirement to perform at techno festivals all over Europe. He also launched a new label to reissue a collection of his early bangers, which left staff writer Angus Finlayson feeling deeply unsettled . Meanwhile, Paul Elstak, Rotterdam's "Godfather of hardcore," was riding high in the Dutch singles charts again. "Engeltje" ("Little Angel"), which featured the rapper Jebroer, peaked at number three in June—the last time Elstak was this high in the charts was in '96 with " The Promised Land ." To date the video for "Engeltje" has almost 15 million views.But hardcore has always been huge in Holland—even when it went underground. 2017 was important for the pockets of activity in other parts of Europe, such as France, Poland and Sweden. Parisian crew Casual Gabberz have been throwing hardcore parties "for the internet generation" for years. In 2014, they organised Gabber Expo, the first festival dedicated to gabber culture in Paris, and appeared on Boiler Room's Gabber Special . They've been expanding ever since, and launched Casual Gabberz Records earlier this year. Their first release was the sprawling Inutile De Fuir compilation, 51 tracks of the "hard and hybrid sounds" heard in Casual Gabberz sets, with contributions from friends and affiliates like Panteros666 and KUNQ member Kilbourne. In the East, WIXAPOL and their roving WIXAPOL S.A. parties have reached cult status in Poland, as Electronic Beats recently reported . WIXAPOL is another collective of DJs who have been throwing gabber-inspired raves since 2012. Like Casual Gabberz, WIXAPOL view hardcore through the prism of internet subcultures. And across the Baltic sea in Stockholm there's Drömfakulteten, a studio collective formed of HAJ300, Lois Nygren, Sissel Wincent and about ten other artists, including Kablam . Drömfakulteten aren't exclusively gabber, but when its three chiefs get together, the BPMs usually escalate.More crucially, hardcore was hip in 2017. Gabber was on the catwalk , in fashion magazine spreads and on the high street. Alberto Guerrini has been documenting gabber and rave aesthetics on his Gabber Eleganza blog since 2011, and in 2017 he finally took the project "offline." Throughout the year, Guerrini has been DJing at clubs, art galleries and raves all over Europe, and as far as Hong Kong, bringing The Hakke Show —an old-school hardcore DJ set with gabber dancers—to festivals like Club To Club in Turin and Resonate in Belgrade. Few brought hardcore to as many people outside of the scene. And this is a crucial point: thanks to devotees like Guerrini, Casual Gabberz and WIXAPOL, a dialogue has opened up between hardcore and contemporary dance music communities. It's helped hardcore transcend some of its negative stigmas, producing a wave of reevaluation and critique about hardcore from outside the scene.An intriguing osmosis between hardcore and techno has also been going on. Big room DJs like Nina Kraviz and Dax J have been dropping hardcore tracks into their peak-time sets, while some big techno promoters, like Reaktor in Amsterdam, have been getting increasingly aggressive with their bookings. Bleaching Agent's gabber set from Unpolished back in March set a precedent; Reaktor have released the lineup for Unpolished 2018, which features The Mover and French industrial hardcore veteran Manu Le Malin, plus special hardcore and breakcore sets from Shawn O'Sullivan and Ryan James Ford respectively. Techno is definitely getting harder—just go to a Mord or Perc Trax night, or peruse Lenny Dee's Hard Electronic label.Was 2017 always destined to be hardcore's year? Marc Acardipane has been obsessed with the year for decades. Speaking to The Hard Data recently, he said that his original mission for Planet Core Productions, Acardipane's pioneering label and hardcore techno production team, better known as "PCP," was "to teach people the hard feeling, because it will come." It was about being shocking and prescient in order to give people "a bit of faith and hope." That's because, in his mind, The Mover songs are medicinal for the darkness of everyday reality: "You feel better after listening." For CTM cofounder Jan Rohlf, the hardcore scene "speaks to the confusions of our present moment." By mining its history and asking questions, he also sees its potential for healing. In response to 2018's festival theme, turmoil, there'll be a night at Berghain dedicated to hardcore and gabber. HAJ300, Kablam and Kilbourne are among those representing the scene's experimental new guard, with DJ Panic, The Darkraver and Acardipane representing the veterans. "Gabber and hardcore give room to many questions," said Rohlf. "One of these is whether such music, that reaches deep into both ends of our polarised social landscape, has the potential to bridge such rifts? Because ultimately, no matter how different we think we are, if we stop speaking to each other, nothing can be gained."