If you didn’t get one for Christmas, chances are you might well be on the look out for a new calendar. If you’re looking for something saucy, yet a little different, then how about the latest tastefully erotic calendar from the Polish company Lindner? Of course, there’s nothing new about improbable businesses promoting themselves with sexy calendars, with Italian tyre company Pirelli setting the fashion with their iconic version way back in 1964. What makes Lindner’s unusual, is that they’re a coffin manufacturer.

You could be forgiven for thinking that 2012 was a pretty poor year for heavy metal, particularly here in its British birthplace. London hosted the Olympics, with the filmmaker Danny Boyle directing the opening and closing ceremonies, designed to highlight the best of British culture and tradition. Of course the soundtrack was crucial, and Boyle carefully picked a selection of timeless British music and song, from hymns, to TV themes tunes and pop songs, and even some classic punk. The only obvious style conspicuous by its absence was heavy metal. But metal’s used to being regarded as beneath contempt by the media’s accepted arbiters of taste. For many metal fans, being perennially out-of-fashion has become a mark of pride.

Morbid culture vultures visiting the capital over the next few weeks will be spoilt for choice, with not one but two exhibitions dedicated to the only certain thing that awaits us all. The Wellcome Collection on Euston Road offers Death: A Self Portrait which is open until February 24th, while the Museum of London (near St Paul’s Cathedral) is hosting a special exhibition dedicated to Doctors, Dissection and Resurrection Men which runs until April 14th.

Perhaps all good magicians should be controversial. The English illusionist and sceptic Derren Brown, certainly is, specialising in boggling minds with clever psychological tricks that have a habit of telling us more about how our brains are wired than is strictly comfortable. His recent two part TV special, ‘Fear and Faith’, is a good example. In the first part, Derren claimed to have developed a miracle pill that could control fear, giving it to a selection of subjects, who all agreed that it worked. It was, of course a placebo – a sugar pill with no medical effects – and any results his subjects experienced was all purely in their minds.

It seems like only yesterday that we were getting ready to go on our summer holidays and now it’s almost Christmas! That means festive parties are on their way and whether you’re going to a student, work or private do, you’re probably already thinking about your outfit.

When Alchemy’s old friends Gavin Baddeley and Keri O’Shea told us that the Vikings had once more invaded the Norsemen’s former English capital of Yorvik (that’s York to any Angles, Normans or Saxons among you) this autumn, we had to know more. This time the invaders were wielding guitars rather than broadswords, though the locals were just as devastated by the assault that people were calling the Warhorns Festival. A weekend of the best in the kindred genres of folk, pagan and black metal, Warhorns was a truly international affair, with bands hailing from as far afield as Latvia and North Carolina, delivering a heathen feast of the kind of music you might find if the mythic hall of Valhalla had a jukebox. While the dust finally settled some time back, we were still eager to hear who prevailed and who fell on that fateful weekend of Warhorns…

ZZ Top, The Damned and Lynyrd Skynyrd were among those honoured at the eighth annual Orange Amplification Classic Rock Roll of Honour awards on Tuesday night at a gala evening held at the Camden Roundhouse, London.

The event was hosted by Duff McKagan (Guns n’Roses, Velvet Revolver, Loaded) and was attended by some of the biggest names of Rock! Alchemy were once again proud sponsors of the event, this time sponsoring the re-issue of the year award. We were also honoured to have sculpted and individually crafted each award in our own Leicester studios, as we do each year along with the Metal Hammer Golden Gods awards.

Among the winners on the night were The Damned, rewarded for their outstanding contribution to music, 36 years on from their recording debut. Rush, who received the award for Album of the Year (Clockwork Angels) and Band of the Year. As well as Tracer who received Best new band, having completed their first headline tour earlier this year.

Anthrax were named Metal Gurus and manager Tony Smith was named VIP, while the late Deep Purple keyboard player Jon Lord received the Tommy Vance Inspiration award.

The Final award of the evening was for ZZ Top, claiming the coveted Living Legend Award presented by last year’s winner, Jeff Beck. The Texan three-piece join an exclusive club including Jimmy Page, Alice Cooper and Iggy Pop.

Bringing an end to a great evening was a 30 minute set by Lynyrd Skynyrd, who had earlier collected the Comeback Award. Scroll down to view a video from the night, as the band perform the well known ‘Sweet Home Alabama’

Classic Rock Roll of Honour 2012

The Living Legend Award (Sponsored by Orange Amplification): ZZ Top

Event Of The Year (Sponsored by Roadrunner): Ginger Raises £250k

Breakthrough Act Of The Year (sponsored by Olympus): Rival Sons

The Musicians’ Union Maestro Award: Phil Manzanera

Tommy Vance Inspiration Award (Sponsored by Lewis Leathers): Jon Lord

Classic Songwriter Award (Sponsored by Sennheiser): Russ Ballard

Outstanding Contribution (sponsored by Monitor Audio): The Damned

Classic Album Award (sponsored by Eagle Rock): Status Quo ‘Live!’

V.I.P. Award (sponsored by currencies.co.uk): Tony Smith

Metal Guru Award (sponsored by Mascot Label Group): Anthrax

Best New Band (sponsored by Kraken): Tracer

Album Of The Year: Rush ‘Clockwork Angels’

Reissue Of The Year (sponsored by Alchemy): Pink Floyd’s ‘Immersion’

Film/DVD Award: Pink Floyd ‘The Story Of Wish You Were Here’

Band Of The Year (sponsored by Live Nation): Rush

Spirit Of Prog Award (sponsored by USM / UMC): Family

Showman Of The Year (sponsored by Rimowa): Nikki Sixx

Comeback Award (Sponsored by Jeffery West): Lynyrd Skynyrd

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DQPwQOl6SCw

A new survey released this week reveals that, for a large number of Brits, seasonal stress officially kicked in on 12 November. Whether you plan your shopping trips early to avoid the big queues or leave it up to the last minute, there’s no denying that festive times cause the biggest headaches for many of us and there’s now just over a month left until Christmas day itself.

The high street is already full of decorations and festive foods so whatever your faith or culture, the chances are you’ve already started at least thinking about if not planning your festivities. American readers will be a little further into their preparations as Thanksgiving is on 22 November!

You’ll be able to find plenty of gift ideas for the Goth, punk, metaller and steampunk in your life in the 35^th anniversary edition of the Alchemy catalogue. Once you’ve made your selection, why not get in the mood with a hot brew served in an Alchemug [ALMUG.1],or maybe something a little stronger in our Viking Horn Tankard [AAT.25]. Don’t forget to stock up on our Alchemist Pen Top [BE.4] decorated ball pens – they’re just the thing for signing your seasonal cards.

Now is the time to get festive, don’t leave it last minute! To buy all the above items and plenty more stunning Alchemy gifts, click on the link to take you to our approved Alchemy Dealers in your area: www.alchemyengland.com/buy

Burlesque is a musical performance commonly known for causing laughter, whilst taking on a serious side to entertain the audience. This genre of performance originated in the Victorian Era, regarded as a theatrical parody.

The performer(s) relied on the audience to understand the ‘mocking’ of other serious artists. When Burlesque first appeared at venues such as Cabarets, Clubs and Theatres, they often featured a female ‘striptease’ alongside elements of comedy which made the shows very diverse. In-fact since the 70’s, a number of big Hollywood movie producers tried to adapt the dramatic Burlesque scenes to feature in films. Some of these include the 1972’s ‘Cabaret’, and ‘All That Jazz’ which premièred in 1979. Costumes in Burlesque were categorised by some as very revealing, wearing stockings, feather boas, skirts above the knee and most importantly, corsets!

Burlesque continues to strive throughout the generations. The new acts of Burlesque such as Dita Von Teese, were influenced by movies and their curvy queens like Marilyn Monroe. With their big hair and fertile hips, these bombshells inspired women everywhere to exaggerate their own voluptuousness, and the corset especially was reborn.
Why not celebrate the long-lived Musical performance with our Corset Burlesque style choker? St.Cyr’s Delight (P587)..’An enticing revue of the Burlesque dancer’s talents. With ribbon lace-up front, black pearls and crystal heart. On deep red velvet with button fastener’

With Christmas just around the corner this would make a stunning gift or even a treat for yourself. Buy yours here to search our list of approved Alchemy Dealers: www.alchemyengland.com/buy

Ben wears a collection of Alchemy Metalwear items including the P623 Pentagration pendant; all available to order at www.alchemyengland.com/buy

Evile are an English Thrash Metal band and formed back in 2004. They have so far released three albums since then; ‘Enter The Grave’, ‘Infectious Nations’ and the recent 2011 album release of ‘Five Serpent’s Teeth’. They have been touring over the last few weeks and we have been lucky enough to catch up with drummer Ben Carter.

*First of all, would you be able to tell us a little bit about the band, and how you came to be?Evile are a Thrash Metal band from Huddersfield, West Yorkshire. We started out as a covers band after Matt Drake and I became friends at school, and it kind of went from there. We had a similar interest in music, both wanted to play live, and it seemed very normal for us to start a band. We enlisted Matt’s brother Ol into the band, and then recruited Mike Alexander for the Bass duties, and the band was complete.

*You’ve been on quite a journey as a band since the early days. What would you say has been your personal highlight? We’ve had the pleasure of playing in some of the greatest places in the world, and seeing some amazing sights. We’ve met so many great people and toured with bands that we’ve grown up watching and idolising, so that in itself is greatly rewarding. I’d say my personal favourites are playing Download at Donington, which for me is the home of heavy metal in England. So many legendary bands have cut their teeth there; to be included in that list is amazing for me.

*Evile have supported some pretty awesome bands over the years such as Exodus, Machine Head and Megadeth, they must have been a real influence, which if any have had the greatest impact on you as a band?When we supported Machine Head and Megadeth, it was very early in our career, and we were very naïve about how a tour was run and how to conduct ourselves. We learned so much from watching those guys backstage, onstage, and behind the scenes that it helped us better ourselves and take that professionalism across into our own setup and work ethic. We were treated really well by those guys and that also helped us and made us feel appreciated on the tour.

*Although the band have been together for over 12 years, it wasn’t until the Bloodstock Festival of 2006 when you got your big break. How did all that come about? We never actively looked to get signed by a record label; we never sent out demos or EP’s to labels, nor did we set a timeline for getting recognised or signed etc. We just loved playing gigs, and getting as far afield as we could to spread our music around. I think it was this honesty in what we did and our work ethic that got us the slot at Bloodstock. We were over the moon to be playing, even more so when we found the head of Earache Records watched our set and was blown away. We had an email waiting for us on the Monday morning after the festival, and the rest kind of fell into place shortly after.

*Six years on, you’ve recently completed a headline UK tour, how do you feel that went? The headlining tour was fantastic, and we had the opportunity to play some songs we’d not previously let loose live, so that was interesting! Our fans always give us a warm reception and we made sure to play extra hard seeing as it might be a while until we tour the UK again.

*It must have been a proud moment playing at the Holmfirth Picturedrome, your home town, following the success of your 3rd studio album Five Serpent’s Teeth? It’s always good to go home and do shows, but the Picturedrome is extra special as it’s so close to all our families and friends, we know so many of them will come and support us, and just have a great night. It’s a fantastic venue too, being an old cinema, and has a really special aura to it. Seeing so many familiar faces still supporting what we do is great and makes you relax so much, they’re really enjoyable gigs there.

*As a band, you seem to still have a real enthusiasm for playing gigs, are there any plans in shape for 2013 yet? Hopefully, in 2013, Evile will continue to go from strength to strength; we are already booked to record our 4th Studio album with Producer extraordinaire Russ Russell, in February. We’ll be touring extensively worldwide, hopefully visiting some countries and territories we’ve not yet visited, and then fingers crossed, we’ll be doing our thing at festivals across the Uk and Europe. We’ll never lose that want to play live, and as long as people want to hear our music, we’ll do our damned best to deliver it to them! Long Live New Flesh!!

Check out Evile’s Full Set performance at Bloodstock festival 2012 below!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4-AJwww-Nuk