Hard trance is similar to
hard house and trance but differs from the two in several ways. It doesn't possess the female lyrics often found in trance and has a much harder beat, a bit like hard house.
When it's done well it can sound great.
Often uses the clapping sybols and plenty of treble, similar to the way trance does.
PS. Im not saying ALL trance has girly lyrics (as in the way
DJ Sammy's "Heaven" does), but a LOT of the highly-commercial stuff does
popular examples of hard trance would be
the Warp Brothers "Phat Bass" or DJ
Dean's "Protect your ears Pulsedriver vs.
Rocco Remix"