Well yeah, I'm a bit late for this, but here's my yearly "stat comparison post" anyway.

Last year:
Time on NG: 9 year(s), 0 month(s) and 1 day(s)
NG Dayys per NG Logs: 3287 days

Experience: 19'990
Exp. Rank: #269
Level: 43
Deposit rate: 60.82%

Base Voting Power: 8.40
Total Voting Power: 13.44

Rank: Supreme Commander
Blams: 15770
Saves: 31341
Total B/P points: 47'111
Avg. B/P Points per day: 14.333
B/P Rank: #71

Whistle: Deity

Posts: 5179
Posts per day: 1.576

Reviews: 865
Reviews per day: 0.263
Review responses: 505
Response rate: 58.38%

Audio Reviews: 1360
Audio Reviews per day: 0.414
Audio Review responses: 834
Audio Response rate: 61.32%

Total: 74'505
Avg. total stats per day: 22.667
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This year: (All stats based on 12/25/11):

Time on NG: 10 year(s), 0 month(s) and 1 day(s)) (+1 year)
NG Days per NG Logs: 3652 days (+365 days)

Experience: 23'640 (+3650)
Exp. Rank: #202 (-67)
Level: 47 (+4)
Deposit rate: 64.76% (+3.94)
Experience per day: 6.476

Base Voting Power: 8.76 (+0.36)
Total Voting Power: 14.02 (+0.58)

Rank: Supreme Commander (N/C)
Blams: 17348 (+1578)
Saves: 36779 (+5438)
Total B/P points: 54127 (+7016)
Avg. B/P Points per day: 14.821 (+0.488)
B/P Rank: #60 (-11)

Whislte: Deity (N/C)

Posts: 6202 (+1023)
Posts per day: 1.698 (+0.082)

Reviews: 923 (+58)
Reviews per day: 0.253 (-0.01)
Review responses: 541 (+36)
Response rate: 58.61% (+0.23)

Audio Reviews: 1435 (+75)
Audio Reviews per day: 0.393 (-0.021)
Audio Review responses: 888 (+54)
Audio Response rate: 61.88% (+0.56)

Total: 86337 (+11832)
Avg. total stats per day: 23.641 (+0.974)
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My goals for 2011:
- 23.640 Experience: Yep! :)
- 50.000 B/P: Yep! :)
- Posting more often: Sadly... no. Still only 1000 posts this year, even though I picked up a bit towards the end of the year.
- 1,000 Flash Reviews: No. :(
- 1,500 Audio Reviews: I easily would've reached this goal if it hadn't been for users deleting their songs. I lost a massive amount of reviews this year and it was hard at times to keep up with all those song deletions. I'm just glad I ended up with a small gain in audio reviews this time...

Conclusion: Again I only reached two goals. What's even worse: I'm trying to reach those review goals for TWO YEARS now, this really sucks...

Goals for 2012:
- Not missing any deposit.
- 62,000 B/P: I need to get up my current pace up a bit to reach this goal.
- Entering the top 50 in B/P: I should be able to achieve this goal, but you never know, since it also depends on other users and how active they are.
- 1,000 Flash reviews: Seems doable, but considering I only managed to get a net gain of 58 reviews last year I have to work quite a bit on this one...
- 1,600 Audio reviews: I want to get more active with reviewing again, so I up this one by 100 reviews.

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A post for christmas, YAY! Here's "Nile" for the letter N!

The band:
Nile are a quite... "unusual" metal band. They play some sort of technical death metal, but they describe their music as "Ithyphallic metal". What's "Ithyphallic"? Here's what wiktionary has to say:
ithyphallic (comparative more ithyphallic, superlative most ithyphallic)
1. Of or pertaining to the erect phallus that was carried in bacchic processions.
2. (by extension) lascivious or obscene.
Or in other words: It describes an erect phallus, like they are displayed on pictures of gods of fertility.

Nile's music is heavily influenced by ancient Egyptian themes (hence their band name), which makes them "unusual" in my opinion.

Nile formed in 1993 with the lineup Karl Sanders, Chief Spires and Pete Hammoura. They debut EP "Festivals of Atonement" was released in 1995 and a tour as supporting act for bands like Obituary and Deicide followed in the southwest of the USA.

After their second EP "Ramses Bringer of War" - released in 1997 - the lable Visceral Productions was going to release the deput LP "Amongst the Catacombs of Nephren-Ka", but they went out of business before they could publish the album.

Luckily for Nile the lable Relapse Records took over and released their debut in 1998.

In the year 2000 the second album "Black Seeds of Vengeance" was released. Before the release however the drummer Pete Hammoura left the band, due to injuries sustained while he was touring for "The Catacombs", making it impossible for him to continue as a death metal drummer. Later that year Chief Spires left the band as well, due to "personal differences". he was replaced by Jon Vesano, Tony Laureano joined the band as a new drummer.

Another album was released in 2005: Annihilation of the Wicked. Again with a new drummer, George Kollias. After the recording of the album Jon Vesano left the band as well.

In 2006 Nile signed a contract with Nuclear Blast, one year later the next album followed: Ithyphallic (explanation: See above ;) ). This album sold 4,600 times, which gained Nile their first Billboard 200 entry (peaking at #162).

After a lot of touring (Ozzfest 2007 for example) the band released another album in 2009, called "Those Whom the Gods Detest", which peaked at #160 after it sold 3,500 copies in the first week of it's release.

The song:
This is "Nas Akhu Khan she en Asbiu". 9th track from Black Seeds of Vengeance. Yes, I chose this song because of it's title. :P

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The cover:

Yesterday was the Champions League match between Manchester City vs. Bayern Munich. I was there, in Manchester, in the stadium, watching the match.

My brother is a City fan (and he was so before Mansour) and he watched some matches already, he also was in the stadium in the first match between those two teams. So I asked him if he could buy me a ticket for the rematch because I am a fan of Bayern München and he did just that.

We flew to Manchester on Tuesday with Ryan Air. That meant: Getting from Hamburg to Bremen with the train, then flying to Manchester Airport and going by train again to Piccadilly train station, then walking for about 5 minutes and checking in our hostel on Hilton Street.

Then we had to waste the rest of the day and the following before the match started. Especially Wednesday the time just didn't want to pass, it seemed. We walked around in Manchester from here to there and back, but it still was 7 hours before the match even started... so we continued to walk around some more. Slowly but surely the streets filled with more fans and guys who where selling merchandise. We each bought a scarf with one half showing the colours of Bayern and the other half showing the colours of ManCity. We payed 5 pounds each; later in a ManCity fan store we saw similar scarfs, but the feeling that it wasn't "official merchandise" became stronger. Ah well, what else can you expect from a random guy selling stuff on the street. At least the emblem of Bayern München looks pretty good, it even has the "ü" in the name.

At around 5 pm we traveled to the stadium because we had to get our tickets. We already ordered and payed them, but City didn't sent the tickets due to saftey reasons ("so they won't get lost on the way to you").

It was a pretty cold night and the hail sure didn't help to keep us warm, so we soon entered the stadium. It was cold here as well, but at least we where protected from the strong wind.

The match itself:
Of course I was hoping to see the top class Bayern Munich players, Ribéry, Robben, Kroos, Neuer... but all I got was Petersen, Contento, Alaba, Butt.
Now, I don't have anything against those players, but I traveled all the way from Germany to see and support my team (I had to support them secretly, because of course I was sitting among City fans), so I was hoping to see the best players the club has to offer.

Anyway, even before that match Bayern was undisputed as top of the group table, so I can understand the decision to give the most valuable players a rest. And the other players need some experience at international matches as well, right?

The game went as expected, City with a lot of ball posession, creating some good chances and taking the lead in the first half.
Second half didn't look any different and City scored a second goal.
Even though Bayern didn't create any real chances I still had the feeling that City wasn't THAT dominant in the match. I think against a better team that kind of performance wouldn't get City very far. Shows that they might be the best team in Premier League, but Champions League is a whole different league (also see Borussia Dortmund: Playing very well in the Bundesliga, but in the Champions League? They just aren't good enoug...)

Well, City won the match, but they still went out of Champions League, because Napoli won their match against Villareal. Funny side note: Manchester United lost against Basel and went out as well!

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Here's the letter M. I chose Merauder for this one.

The band:
Some people lable this as a "hardcore" band, others say "hardcore punk" and yet others say "Metalcore". It's your choice, but I just say they are a "metal band".

The band was formed in 1990 in New York City and made a name for themselves in the eastern US hardcore/metal scene. They toured frequently and released some demos.

In 1995 they toured together with Biohazard. One year later they released their debut album "Master Killer". Following this debut album was some more touring, with Fear Factory and with german band Böhse Onkelz (a band you shouldn't check out, as they are just plain shit. And on top of being plain shit they also have a history as an extremly right-winged band).

Not too much is In 1999 the album "Five Deadly Venoms" was released. Since the band is constantly on tour the album is recorded at various places, but the album still is a great one.

After that, things cool down a bit for Merauder. The drummer is replaced with Dave Chavarri (Il Nino) and Billy Milano (S.O.D.) produces the next album "Bluetality" which sees the light of the day in 2003.

Just as it is usual habit in the music business, Merauder have some "internal differences", so there are some replacements. With the death of guitarrist Javier Carpio in 2006 the band is layed to rest for a while.

In 2009 the album "God Is I" is released on Regain Records.

The song:
Sadly I only know one album - "Five Deadly Venoms" - from this band, so I'm somewhat limited in my choice here.
Here's "Save My Soul", the 8th track on the album. Oh yeah, the album artwok is wrong on this video. Of course the track isn't on "Master Killer"...

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The cover:

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After another long pause (real life is quite busy and on top of that I am terribly lazy!), here's the letter L!

The band:
Another band from Norway, this time it's symphonic black metal band Limbonic Art!
Formed in 1993 the band needed three years to release their debut album "Moon in the Scorpio" on the label Nocturnal Art Productions. Before that debut album they released two demos; one in 1995 and one in '96, shortly before they signed with their label.
In 1997 the album "In Abhorrence Dementia" followed (and sadly it's the only album I own [well, it belongs to my wife, to be exact] and know). They continued to release albums in the following years; a demo compilation called "Epitome of Illusions" in '98, "Ad Noctum - Dynasty of Death" in '99 and then, after a longer pause, "The Ultimate Death Worship" in 2002.

In 2003 the group disbanded stating "we feel that we have reached as far as we could in our collaboration. The circle is complete, begin another."

However, on June 6, 2006 (yes, 06/06/06) they reunited again and started to write new songs. In 2007 the album "Legacy of Evil" was released. A dispute between band members made things difficult in the following years, but in 2010 "Phatasmagoria" was released, to this date the newest album of the band.

The song:
A live version of "When Mind and Flesh Depart", the fourth song on "In Abhorrence Dementia".

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The cover:

[INDEX PAGE]

After a long pause, here's the letter K!

The band:
Keep of Kalessin is an extreme metal band from Trondheim, Norway formed in 1993. The name comes from a series of books called "Earthsea" (by Ursula K. Le Guin), where Kalessin is the name of the arch-dragon who is the bearer of the Earthsea world.
The original line-up consisted of Obsidian C (guitars, synths), Warach (bass), Ghâsh (vocals) and Vyl (drums). They recorded two albums - Through Times of War (released 1997) and Agnen: A Journey Through the Dark (1999)

Unlike most black metal bands, Keep of Kalessin is in its harshness still melodic and technically oriented. In contrast to traditional Norwegian black metal, Keep of Kalessin also make use of other instruments like the piano, keyboards and synthesizers. They started experimenting with a new sound which gave Keep of Kalessin its new character after Obsidian C. (the band founder) recruited the new band-members Thebon, Wizziac and Vyl for their album Armada in 2006 (Obsidian C. toured with Satyricon for a while, so Keep of Kalessin wasn't active during that time).

In 2007 the album "Kolossus" was recorded; it was released in the summer of 2008, demonstrating the band improved their sound after the well received and highly acclaimed release Armada in 2006 which even got some good attention from the more mainstream media in Norway. This resulted in a nomination for the "Spellemannprisen" in the metal category in 2008. On Kolossus they started to experiment more with different instruments and the band indeed created a unique character for Keep of Kalessin.

In 2010, Keep of Kalessin entered a song in the Melodi Grand Prix, the annual competition to select Norway's entry in the Eurovision Song Contest, which was hosted by the country due to its victory in the 2009 content, becoming the first heavy metal band to vie in the competition. The band performed their new song, "The Dragontower", in the first of 3 semi-final rounds and advanced to the Gold Final round, where the band finished in 3rd place overall through a combined viewer and jury vote.

Also in 2010, the album "Reptilian" was released.

The song:
Here's a live version of "The Dragontower". Funny to see a Metal Band performing in a song contest, lol.

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The cover:

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Here's the letter J. This choice might not be a great surprise, since there don't seem to be an awful lot of bands that start with J, so here's Jag Panzer.

The band:
Jag Panzer came together in late 1981, being inspired by the "New Wave of British Heavy Metal". The band was known as Tyrant in its first incarnation but they soon had to change their name, because another such named band existed in California.

They saw a poster featuring a German World War II tank, named Jagdpanzer (literally "hunting tank" in German, but actually referring to what in English would be called a tank destroyer) which they decided to name their band after. They were however, unable to pronounce the name correctly and as a result, dropped the letter "D" from the name and simply called it Jag Panzer.

In 1983 the band recorded their first EP called "Tyrants" and in early 1984 the first album "Ample Destruction" was released. It was an underground hit in the United States, and in Europe and Japan it was available on import only.

After some major line-up changes the band recorded a follow-up to their debut in 1987, but it was never released officially.

By 1994 the band had reunited and released their first official album in almost 10 years: "Dissident Alliance".

The next album, "The Fourth Judgement", came out in late 1997; it was followed by "Age of Mastery" (1998). Jag Panzer sought to tackle more ambitious territory for their next album, with "Thane to the Throne" (2000) a concept album about William Shakespeare's, Macbeth.

"Mechanized Warfare" was released in 2001, then the band released a double album in 2003 that featured previously unreleased tracks as well as songs from their first LP. "Decade of the Nail Spiked Bat" came out in 2003, and featured re-recorded and /or remixed old material. In 2004 the band released "Casting the Stones". The previously unreleased "Chain of Command" album was remixed and was issued in 2004 as a limited edition.

A few line-up changes followed, then in 2011 the last album "The Scourge of the Light" was released.

On July 25 2011, the band announced that they are to disband.

The song:
This is "Burn" from the newest and last album "The Scourge of the Light". The video is ridiculous (especially the "flames" you can see throughout the video), but the song is nice anyway.

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The cover:

[INDEX PAGE]

After a (too) long pause, here's finally the letter I!

The band:
In Extremo (Latin: At the Edge) is a German medieval metal band originating from Berlin. The band's musical style combines metal with medieval traditional songs, blending the sound of the standard rock/metal instruments with historical instruments (such as bagpipes, harp, hurdy-gurdy and shawm). Versions of well-known traditional/medieval ballads make up the main part of their repertoire, but the band has written an increasing share of original material in recent years. Their own material is written in German, whilst the traditional songs are in a variety of languages, including Gaelic, Spanish, English, Norwegian, Swedish, Icelandic, French, Estonian, Galician, Hebrew, Latin, Occitan, Old High German.

In Extremo began as two projects: a nameless, purely medieval band, and a rock band. They became known at that time through frequent appearances at medieval market meetings, at which they performed their acoustic pieces and sold CDs of their renditions of traditional songs. During the recording for the 1995 season, Michael Rhein (alias Das letzte Einhorn, engl. "The Last Unicorn") found the project name "In Extremo".

The increasing number of visitors, success of their CDs, and the popular interest, as well as cross-pollination from groups such as Corvus Corax and Bathory, encouraged In Extremo in 1995 to attempt to start a band combining bagpipes and other traditional instruments with rock guitars. The result was the current incarnation of In Extremo, a rock group that integrates modern instruments like the drum set, electric bass and guitar with the acoustic elements previously used for the medieval songs, and which plays both types of music as well as a hybrid of the two.

In August 1996, they began work on the first In Extremo album, which already contained two tracks of the new rock project. Because the album had no official name, it became known as "In Extremo Gold" because of the golden covers. In February 1997 it quickly sold out in Medieval markets.

In Extremo played separately as a medieval and a rock band, until on March 29, 1997, when they played their first live rock concert. Since that time, they have given this date as their date of establishment. The two projects were officially merged on January 11, 1998. April 1998 saw the first "high occupancy" In Extremo concert in the Rabenstein castle in Brandenburg.

Over the years, their music became more heavy metal based, while at the same time becoming increasingly commercially successful. The classical instruments, however - bagpipes, shawms, and lutes - still play a large role. The band is likewise noted for their conspicuous stage costumes and known for using pyrotechnics in their concerts, including "Der Morgenstern" (engl. "Morning star") playing cymbals which have been set on fire.

To this date the band released an enourmous 15 albums (5 live albums, 1 "best of" album and 9 studio albums). The last was released in 2011 and it's called "Sterneneisen" (engl. "star iron").

The song:
Since I only followed this band until they released their 5th studio album "Sünder ohne Zügel" (engl. "Unbridled Sinners ") my song choice obviously is limited to those albums.
This is a live version of "Villeman Og Magnhild", so you can see the band playing all those nice instruments. It's the fith song on "Weckt die Toten!" (engl. "Wake the dead!"), which is their third studio album.
This was recorded at the Wacken Open Air. The quality of the video is a bit low, though.

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The cover:

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Time for the letter H! I was thinking about introducing the band "Haggard" here, but since my account got it's name from this band I figured that's enough exposure already. ^^
Instead I bring to you: Hollenthon!

The Band:
Hollenthon is a melodic death metal band from Austria. The band includes many symphonic elements in their work, while their earlier material contains some black metal influence.

The beginnings of Hollenthon date back to 1994; the band was founded by Martin Schirenc (the singer of Pungent Stench) as a Black Metal band called Vuzem. Mike Gröger joins as a drummer. This project released two songs on a compilation CD and then went on a hiatus.

In late 1998 unfinished material from what was meant to be the first full length album foir Vuzem is brought to the attention of Napalm Records. Shortly thereafter the band signs a contract with the lable, changing their name to Hollenthon, since "Vuzem" was also a brand for leather wear. "Hollenthon" is the name of a small town in Austria.

The first album "Domus Mundi" is released in 1999.

In June 2001, Hollenthon releases "With Vilest of Worms to Dwell".

The album was promoted with a European tour together with Eisregen and Siebenbürgen. The live line up was completed with Mike's bandmates Mario Klausner (Ex-Pungent Stench) and Werner Freinbichler (Collapse 7).

The following years saw Martin concentrating on Pungent Stench although the writing of new material was never stopped. 2008 Hollenthon releases their third album "Opus Magnum".

Wanting a "real band" and not just additional live musicians Martin and Mike chose to recruit Gregor Marboe who Martin shared stages with since early 2006 in Pungent Stench on bass and backing vocals and who has been active in the Austrian scene for years in his bands Defender Kfs and Vargsriket. In need of a second guitarist Martin Arzberger (Molokh, Defender Kfs) was introduced to the band.

In 2009 the 4 track EP "Tyrants and Wraiths" was released

The song:
Here's the 7th track from the first album "Premonition - Lex Talionis".

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The Cover:

[INDEX PAGE]

Two weeks since the last letter, but I've been away last week end, so obviously I coudln't post anything.

The Band:
Maybe the least "metal" band in this alphabeth, but it's a great band nevertheless! This time it's "Gotthard", a hard rock band from Switzerland. Their last eleven albums have all reached number 1 in the Swiss album charts, making them one of the most successful Swiss acts ever and yet I still think they aren't exactly well known in other parts of the world.

In 1991 the band was founded (under the name "Krak"), but they quickly changed the name to "Gotthard" (which is derved from a mountain range in the swiss Alps, the Saint-Gotthard Massif). In 1992 the self titled debu album was released and it already was a huge success, topping at #5 in the swiss charts.
In 1993 the second album "Dial Hard" was recorded in the USA. It was released in 1994 and was the first #1 album for Gotthard.

After the third album "G." the band released the unplugged live album "D-Frosted" and they got a lot softer after that. However, in 2003 they parted ways with their mentor Chris von Rohr because he wanted to push the band towards a more commercial succesful direction. But the band members wanted to play harder rock instead.

In 2010 singer and co-founder Steve Lee died in a (pretty weird) accident: He was on a motor cycle tour on the Interstate 15. When he and his companions where getting some rest a truck crashed into the motor cycles. One of those cycles flew through the air and hit Steve Lee, who died on the scene.

The song:
Actually I wanted "Mountain Mama" here, but didn't find a good video... so, here's "Higher" instead. The first track on the second album.

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The Cover:

Yes, the cover reads "Got Hard", with the second T being flipped upside down to represent a phallus... some kind of reference to 80's hair metal bands and their "insinuating" lyrics.