Dark hip-hop with an industrial undercurrent. Your soundtrack to intelligent dissent in Trump’s America.

“Pure Humber sludge” – the sound of Battalions! A half hour of well-crafted bounce and groove all held up by a reassuring heaviness that keeps the head nodding throughout.

Ahead of the release their second long player Moonburn and playing the New Blood Stage at this year’s Bloodstock, Nik Prowse posed a few questions to vocalist Phil Wilkinson from Hull heavyweights Battalions about their new music, Bloodstock and what it’s like being in a band from Hull.

Ghostpoet’s laconic, understated drawl is unique. His voice, combined with trip hop vibes and indie guitar, gives us a gorgeous album that reveals more on each play.

The variety, the light and the shade, make for a very strong, very listenable metal album, and one that will stay on my playlist for a long while. Prong’s finest for a long while.

As a body of work ‘Kentro I’ showcases what Wander as Ghosts are capable of. They can build incredible variation of sound and feel into their music, often switching in a heartbeat, and rarely making the transition feel anything other than completely natural. It makes for an intriguing listen.

Goatwhore’s well-crafted seventh album is paced like a live show – with faster thrashy numbers mixed in with slower doomy efforts for banging your head to.

This is Mastodon on acid, with the psych setting turned up to 11: the soundtrack for a trip to the edge of the galaxy.

I loved the atmosphere created by ‘Hydrogen’, which sits comfortably with the best work of ambient electronica’s heavyweights.

As the music gets heavier Caroline Cawley’s voice is the constant – clear, wavering, beautiful.

This album is definitely a worthy successor to the masterful ‘Ótta’, but it’s not ‘Ótta 2’. My album of the year so far by a mile.

You can’t rush this stuff. You have to give it head space, spend time with it. Absorb it.

A cohesive album with a blend of metal and post-rock influences that is greater than the sum of its parts.

An essential album from a band with an all-too-short career.