It is official now: William Shatner is an Honorary Headbanger. As we brought to your attention several weeks ago, Captain Kirk himself had been nominated to receive the Honorary Headbanger Award at the annual Revolver Awards. Shatner received his award during the ceremony, and photos of the event are now available for you to check out at the bottom of this post.

Scott Ian from Anthrax and comedian Brian Posehn presented the award to Shatner, which is handed out to someone who is not necessarily seen as being in the metal community, but embodies the spirit of metal. The award is a timely one for Shatner, who is currently working on a new music project: his first-ever metal album.

Spock may not think the merging of Shatner and Metal to be a logical one — but at this point in 2011, William Shatner is becoming more metal than ever. And even at his age of 80, there seems to be no stopping the once Captain of the USS Enterprise, for this year he will be releasing a metal album, as we reported on several weeks ago. To acknowledge his efforts not only towards his current album project, entitled Seeking Major Tom, but also for his entire epic career, William Shatner will next month be awarded the Honorary Headbanger Award at the annual Revolver Awards.

The Revolver Golden Gods is an awards ceremony to recognize all metal, held every year. The Honorary Headbanger Award is handed out to someone who is not necessarily seen as being in the metal community, but embodies the spirit of metal. With his upcoming album featuring collaborative efforts with numerous metal artists, and his long career in Star Trek and acting in other roles over the years, Shatner is an artist of determination who continually breaks down the doors of what people think he should do (or if people just think it to be… odd).

The official website for Gibson guitars has released what they perceive to be the top 50 metal songs of all time. Gibson.com’s writers and editors worked on compiling the list over several weeks, releasing 10 entries at a time, and recently released the top 10, which declared the number one metal song to be “Master of Puppets” by Metallica.

In some ways, the number one spot for Metallica is fitting, considering 2011 is the 25th anniversary of the release of their Master of Puppets album. Having said that though, metalheads are notorious for having fierce and strong opinions about what they consider to be their “top songs,” on top of their fierce and strong opinions about what bands are or are not even metal.

News outlets and metal sites are reporting that Mike Starr, original bassist for Alice in Chains, has died. He was 44. Starr was found dead in a Salt Lake City, UT, home at 1:42pm this afternoon.

Starr worked with Alice in Chains through to the band’s tour for the album Dirt. He is known for having performed with the band on songs such as “Them Bones,” “Man in the Box.” and “Got Me Wrong.”

Starr recently grabbed attention by ‘checking in’ on television’s Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew. His former colleagues in Alice in Chains were disheartened to see this development, as were many fans. Starr has had a very public battle with drug addiction, and was arrested for possession charges as recently as February 2011. It is uncertain at this point whether his death was drug related.