Eleanor Goodman
Eleanor Goodman shapes and leads coverage of heavy metal and alternative music through flagship cover stories, deeply reported artist features and fan-focused guides, with a particular emphasis on the personalities and narratives that define contemporary metal culture. As Editor of Metal Hammer, she combines editorial direction with hands-on writing, turning major releases, emerging voices and cross-genre experiments into accessible stories that speak to committed fans as well as curious listeners. Her work stands out for its mix of cover-package writing, conceptual features and track-by-track breakdowns that frame heavy music as a lived culture rather than just a set of albums.
Iron Maiden, Halestorm and the art of the Metal Hammer cover
Eleanor oversees and writes many of Metal Hammer’s high-profile cover stories, using them to anchor bigger editorial moments around key bands and releases. Her recent piece on Iron Maiden on the cover of Metal Hammer, tied to an exclusive Eddfest water bottle, shows how she treats covers as curated fan experiences, pairing iconic imagery with collectible extras and clear calls to the band’s long-running mythology. She applies a similar approach when Halestorm front a new Metal Hammer issue as they prepare to release their album Everest, framing the cover around both the band’s current creative chapter and the anticipation in the fanbase. Across these cover-led articles, her focus is on positioning bands within the broader story of heavy music today, while highlighting why a particular moment merits a dedicated magazine spotlight. That blend of merchandising detail, narrative context and band-centric framing distinguishes her work from routine news posts about new issues or tours.
Inside Babymetal’s exciting new chapter and Poppy’s wild world
A consistent thread in Eleanor’s features is her interest in artists who stretch the boundaries of metal, especially those who blend heavy music with pop, visual art or performance concepts. In her feature on Babymetal’s album The Other One, she explores “Babymetal’s exciting new chapter” by unpacking the record’s mythology of ten parallel worlds and the way each track represents a different myth, using the band’s own words to open up the conceptual framework behind their sound. She uses similar narrative tools in her piece “Inside the wild and wonderful world of Poppy,” tracing how Poppy has become “one of metal’s biggest personalities” and focusing on persona, aesthetics and attitude as much as sound. These stories situate artists at the intersection of metal, pop and internet culture, and Eleanor writes them in a way that helps readers understand not only the music but the character and conceptual universe each artist has built. Her coverage of such hybrid acts gives Metal Hammer a lens on where heavy music is moving next, rather than only revisiting heritage names.
Scott Ian’s guide to life and other personality-led features
Eleanor often builds features around personality and lived experience rather than purely around album cycles. In “Anthrax: Scott Ian’s guide to life,” she structures the piece as a set of lessons and stories drawn from the guitarist’s career, using his voice to explore broader themes of resilience, humour and the realities of touring and fame. Her interview feature “Meet Heart Of A Coward's new singer Kaan Tasan” introduces a key lineup change by focusing on the new vocalist’s background and outlook, giving readers a sense of the person behind the role and what his arrival means for the band’s sound. A profile of Nightwish vocalist Floor Jansen, as quoted by a fan site, shows her asking about youth, habits and symphonic metal fandom, again putting personality and formative experiences at the centre of the story. Even in lighter, playful formats like “We played Pat Sharp from Fun House metal's most fun songs and these are his thoughts,” she uses a recognisable television figure to comment on the joy and absurdity of metal’s more exuberant side. Together, these pieces show a reporter who writes about heavy music through the people inhabiting it, emphasising character, humour and personal history as much as discography.
Track-by-track guides and fan service formats
Alongside narrative features, Eleanor regularly produces structured guides designed to help listeners engage more deeply with specific releases. Her “Your track-by-track guide to the We Are X official soundtrack” walks through each piece of music associated with the documentary on X Japan, explaining context and emotional tone in a way that invites existing fans to revisit and new listeners to enter the band’s story. In collaborative work such as “Korn's The Nothing: Your ultimate track-by-track guide,” she contributes to a format that breaks down an album song by song, balancing descriptive detail with clear opinions on themes and dynamics. These guides serve as reference pieces fans can return to while listening, and they reinforce Metal Hammer’s role not just as a news source but as an interpretive companion to heavy releases. This kind of methodical, listener-oriented writing is a hallmark of her coverage and distinguishes her output from more generic, single-pass album reviews.
Living with tinnitus and listening culture
Eleanor’s work also touches on health and the realities of long-term listening, bringing a human and practical angle into a music magazine context. In “Living with tinnitus: ‘We all love music – why would we want to lose it?’” she writes candidly about experiencing tinnitus since her teens, detailing the strategies she uses to manage the condition while continuing to love and work in music. The article covers protective habits like earplugs, distancing from speakers and monitoring factors that exacerbate symptoms, alongside references to meditation, wearable devices and support groups. By placing this discussion in a heavy music outlet, she connects fan behaviour at gigs and festivals with the long-term consequences of high-volume listening, encouraging awareness without moralising. This perspective on listening culture and audience wellbeing adds another dimension to her beat and reflects her broader role in shaping how Metal Hammer talks about the responsibilities that come with loving loud music.
Across her body of work, Eleanor combines the responsibilities of editing a major heavy music magazine with regular, distinctive writing that spans cover packages, conceptual artist features, personality profiles, track-by-track guides and health-focused pieces. Her coverage is anchored in heavy metal but consistently engages with adjacent genres and hybrid acts, and she writes in formats that are built for fan engagement rather than just passing consumption. That mix of editorial leadership and varied, fan-centric storytelling is what sets her apart from a more generic music reporter on the same beat.
4 more music journalists.
Abigail Kellett
Abigail Kellett is a news reporter at the Halifax Courier who stands out for visually led coverage that shows how culture, nightlife and local life play out on the ground. She documents gigs, festivals and major live shows at venues such as The Piece Hall through curated photo sets that capture atmosphere, crowd and setting as much as performers, and she uses extensive image galleries to tap reader nostalgia for nights out in Halifax town centre. Her beat spans arts, entertainment, going out, heritage, books and literary events, along with community life, people stories, local challenges, milestones, transport, regeneration, lifestyle and food. She reports through photographs, checklist-style features, reader-driven lists and roundups of most-read stories, turning announcements, programmes, author events, festivals, shop lists and everyday characters into stories about place, shared memory and how people spend their time.
Adam Lyon
Adam Lyon is a digital audience and content editor whose news beat sits at the intersection of Ayrshire’s cultural life, business environment and public affairs. He works for the Ayr Advertiser and as Digital Audience & Content Editor for Newsquest in the west of Scotland across multiple weekly titles. He covers Ayrshire news with a strong thread of music and local culture alongside business, courts and public affairs. He reports on music when it has a clear community or national hook, treating songs as news events rather than reviews. His business work explains how local firms and retail policy shape town centres. His court coverage uses round-ups of sheriff court cases to show patterns and outcomes. He also fronts video previews and is active in a football supporters trust community.
Adam Maidment
Adam Maidment is a senior What’s On and LGBTQ+ reporter whose work links big-name gigs, new venues and cultural flashpoints to everyday fan culture and inclusion. He covers music, nightlife and the wider cultural scene for the Manchester Evening News, focusing on how concerts, openings and immersive events land with real people and communities. His beat spans live music, arenas and stadiums, new restaurant and bar openings, food reviews, exhibitions, street art and nightlife infrastructure, with a particular focus on LGBTQ+ audiences and neighbourhoods. He reports on venue ambitions and problems, cultural institutions and equality issues, and franchise-led experiences, using straightforward, on-the-ground reporting and clear description. Drawing on a background in community reporting, he looks for underrepresented perspectives and uses social media, analytics and local sourcing to find stories where culture, identity and place meet.
Alison Brinkworth
Alison Brinkworth is a freelance journalist who treats music as a gateway into place, history and everyday life, often through exhibitions, performances and city-centre events. She covers music within the wider cultural and lifestyle scene, leaning toward accessible, on-the-ground stories framed by familiar artists, venues and local attractions. Her work often focuses on music exhibitions and attractions built around well-known performers, alongside theatre reviews, live events and city attractions. She brings a lifestyle, travel and human-interest sensibility, using interviews and personal stories to show how people spend their time. With over 25 years of experience across print, digital, social media and internal communications, she writes clear, factual, audience-facing articles with dates, locations and organisers, suited to listings, guides and practical recommendations.