James Weaver
James Weaver is a heavy music specialist who combines fast, factual coverage of new releases and tours with long-term, curated insight into extreme and alternative scenes. As founder and editor-in-chief of Distorted Sound Magazine, he has been reporting on riffs since 2012 and has shaped the outlet into a dedicated home for metal, punk and adjacent genres.
Founder-editor with a long view of heavy music
James founded Distorted Sound Magazine in 2015 and continues to lead it as editor-in-chief, setting the editorial focus firmly on alternative and heavy music. His author bio describes him as “reporting on riffs since 2012,” and his earliest album reviews for bands such as Children of Bodom and Kalmah date back to 2013, underscoring more than a decade of continuous coverage of metal. Across the archive, he follows established names like Katatonia and Kreator alongside emerging acts, showing a consistent interest in how artists develop across multiple records.
Outside the magazine, he works as an account manager and media specialist at Skout – The HR PR Agency, pairing editorial leadership with day-to-day experience in media and communications. He also drives partnerships for the magazine, announcing collaborations such as Distorted Sound’s link-up with Norway’s Inferno Metal Festival, a leading extreme metal event. This mix of editorial, industry and festival-facing work gives his coverage a perspective rooted in both fan knowledge and professional practice.
Release and tour news across metal, punk and synth-driven scenes
James’s most frequent format is concise news pieces on new albums, EPs, singles and tours across heavy subgenres. Recent headlines include “Haken announce new EP ‘In a Fever Dream’,” “Negative Frame announce debut album ‘Break The…’,” and “Devil Master announce new album,” each flagging key release details for progressive metal, extreme metal and punk-influenced acts. He covers traditional heavy metal as well, with news such as Saxon announcing a UK tour and Sabaton releasing the standalone single and music video “Yamato.”
His beat extends beyond guitar-based metal into darker adjacent sounds. In “Perturbator announce new album ‘Age Of Aquarius’,” he reports on the Paris-based dark synthwave artist’s upcoming release, framing it within the artist’s recent discography. Similarly, “Fires In The Distance announce new album ‘Circadian Promise’” and “Gorod announce new album ‘The Ember Gone’” show him tracking melodic death metal and technical death metal respectively, often including label information, release dates and tracklists. Across these pieces, the emphasis is on clear release facts and positioning the record within the band’s trajectory rather than commentary or opinion.
Album reviews that track evolution in extreme genres
Alongside news, James writes full album reviews that look at how bands refine or shift their sound. Recent examples include “ALBUM REVIEW: The Once Forgotten Ways of Old – Serpent Lord” and “ALBUM REVIEW: Alt Som Finnes – Bizarrekult,” where he examines contemporary black and extreme metal records in detail. Earlier in the archive, he reviews albums like “The Fall Of Hearts – Katatonia” and “Gods of Violence – Kreator,” reflecting an interest in both atmospheric, genre-blurring acts and classic thrash institutions.
His reviews often situate a release in the context of previous work, especially for long-running bands such as Children of Bodom’s “Halo of Blood” and Kalmah’s “Seventh Swamphony.” This pattern of following artists over multiple records distinguishes his coverage from generic write-ups focused only on a single release. He tends to balance descriptive commentary on songwriting, mood and production with attention to where an album sits in the wider scene, whether that scene is black metal, melodic death metal, progressive metal or crossover punk.
Festival previews and artist interviews
James also writes features that help readers navigate festivals and live circuits. Pieces such as “Top 10 bands you must watch at Desertfest London” and “Top 10 bands you must watch at Inferno Metal” show him acting as a curator, selecting line-up highlights across doom, stoner, sludge and extreme metal bills. These previews go beyond listing acts, functioning as recommendations that draw on his broader familiarity with the heavy underground and its touring patterns.
His bylines include artist interviews, such as speaking with Opeth’s Fredrik Åkesson, which add direct musician perspectives to his coverage. Together, the interviews and festival guides complement his news and reviews by mapping how bands move from studio releases to live stages and festival slots. For outlets or campaigns focused on metal, punk or dark electronic music, his combination of long-term scene knowledge, editorial leadership and day-to-day reporting makes him a specialist who consistently covers both headline names and emerging acts.
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.