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Damnation came hot on the heels of the warmest Halloween on record. Buried deep in the labyrinthine depths of England’s Leeds University, and in its tenth year, the festival’s now firmly established as a red letter day in the heavy metal calendar. Particularly for fans of the genre’s more extreme bands, as Damnation concentrates on less overtly commercial sounds, from the most whip-crack fast and vicious, to the eerily experimental and atmospheric.

One moment I’m getting advice from M-Schmink Michelle on how to paint my face into a sugar skull, and the next I’m marching among 15.000 people in a parade, together taking over Amsterdam’s city centre. El dia de los Muertos was this year’s Fox Amsterdam Halloween Parade and Party theme.

What could be better than combining the two best things in the world, which is exactly what they’ve done at Cakeageddon, a ghoulish synthesis of cakes and Halloween. Billed as ‘the world’s first edible horror farm’, Cakeageddon is a scary visitors’ attraction on a farm near the English city of Letchworth. Haunted houses – or even haunted farms – that promise to terrify the paying public are nothing new this time of year. What makes this special is that all of the grisly props and spooky settings are lovingly sculpted from cake, and hence edible. If you dare…

Our favourite night of the year is approaching – what plans do you have for Halloween? The event falls on the eve of the Celtic festival of Samhain, which marks the end of the harvest and beginning of winter and is still celebrated by many pagans. Over the years, 31 October has also become an occasion to remember the dead in the form of either All Hallows Eve or the Mexican holiday called Day of the Dead.

Vampires, ghosts and zombies are all featured in the British Library’s magnificent new exhibition, ‘Terror And Wonder: The Gothic Imagination’, which opened last week. Timed to coincide with the 250th anniversary of the very first Gothic novel, Horace Walpole’s ‘The Castle Of Otranto’, it’s the UK’s largest exhibition of Gothic and is open to the public until 6 January 2015.

Apples and love, not sure why they have become such good friends over the years having in mind that an apple made Eve ruin Heaven for Adam in the first place…or so they say…
Somehow the magical connection between love, desire and apples decided to play a romantic part in our lives, sometimes without us really knowing it. For example, search for spells including apples and love and you’ll find out there is a whole bunch of them.

Gothic animals

Humans and animals share a microcosm in this grand universe of ours, it’s understandable therefore that we’d form bonds and alliances with our earthly cell-mates. From the dawn of time man and beast have co-existed and relied on each other for survival. But more than this, an elevation to friendship and spiritual bonds make our animal counterparts a glittering facet to our transcendental selves.

One of the most important ways for Alchemy to meet it’s trade customers, to showcase each season’s latest products, preview Alchemy’s new designs and projects and discuss ideas and issues, is through the circuit of international trade shows. Certainly one of the most important and by far the best of these to attend, (for both business reasons and fun!), is LondonEdge, a twice-yearly event held in London with occasional showings in exotic locations such as New York, Hong Kong or Berlin.

Dark culture vultures should wing their way to London this autumn, as the British Library are hosting an exhibition celebrating 250 years of Gothic literature.

We have evidence of jewellery used as decorative adornment dating back as far as between 90,000 and 100,000 years ago. But as mankind progressed and our understanding grew, jewellery changed from merely decorations to representations and reflections; jewellery started to serve as a symbol of wealth and/or status, as well as to protect against harm, ward off evil, and heal ailments. And through the years and across continents from Egypt, Mesopotamia, Greece and Rome, Asia and India to the Georgian, Edwardian and Victorian eras an indeed to modern day, shining examples of such adornment have opened a window to the soul of humanity and shed light on our thoughts, dreams, beliefs and desires.