Even if his approach to DJing and production refuses to stick to the straight and narrow, something that is consistent for Finnish hard dance identity Proteus is his love of the kind of dark, gothic imagery and fashion we’d normally associate with the black metal community. His publicity shots show him clad head to toe in black leather, sporting black eyeliner aplenty and even brandishing a guitar in some shots that’d be worthy of any insane Scandinavian man with an interest in the black arts.

This link to the metal and industrial scenes is a common thread for many hard dance acts. Even though they may appear worlds apart, Proteus reckons the scenes are closer together than we might think. “It’s a very natural thing to see the red line between all those different styles,” he says. “I’ve always liked metal and industrial, and at the same time the techno stuff. I see a lot of common things in there – hard music is hard music

The common thread, Proteus says, is the energy. “With metal, there’s a lot of strong energy in there, a lot of heavy riffs. And the same goes for the hardstyle and the hard dance. The strong riffs, the heavy bass and the mayhem. There are a lot of things that work really well together.”

Before the month is out, we’ll have the chance to see Proteus conjuring his black energy in a distinctly different setting – the debut of the Defqon.1 Festival on Australian soil. ITM’s Angus Paterson talks to the Finnish hard dance master about what it’s like to be blacker than dark metal.

The Defqon.1 Festival comes to the Sydney International Regatta Centre on Saturday September 19th. Tickets on sale now from tickets.q-dance.com.au, check out the trailer below…