So it should be:

The Dark Saga -4
The Crusade -2

We're in negative numbers now?

:laughing:

That's what happens when you get metal elitists voting on the thread, they forget that metal can also be fun and shouldn't be taken too seriously.

Hey, I love metal that doesn't take itself too seriously, but I can't stand Trivium anymore, and Dark Saga is easily my least favorite Iced Earth album.

Trivium actually put out a pretty good recent album last year. I have a special place for them, so that's probably why I can still stand to listen to them and legitimately like them.

Anyway, with Engine and almauro voting IE, I think the score is actually:

The Crusade - 2
The Dark Saga - 5


And I just gave the Trivium album a listen. At first it seemed like a reasonably okay Metallica facsimile... until those other vocals showed up. You know, the ones that sound like every Christian rock band of the past decade. Unfortunately this continued throughout the album, usually accompanied by suitably cheesy instrumentation. I wish they would have just stuck with the faux-Hetfield style throughout instead. Nevertheless, I did enjoy the heavier parts of The Crusade more than anything on The Dark Saga so I'm voting Trivium.

The Crusade - 3
The Dark Saga - 5

No they didn't. As flawed as they may be, Trivium desperately want to be some sort of new age prog thrash band or something, but are too scared of alienating their meathead metalcore fanbase, so now they're just going to start copying Ascendency over and over again. I had hoped that they might have some balls and break away from that and make an album that didn't make me cringe whenever I wasn't on some weird metalcore kick, but nay, they have played it safe and consigned themselves to be future Has-Beens.

To each his own. Like I said, I have a special place for them, even though I do agree with you on some points that you brought up. Unfortunately it is true that each album they release is just an Ascendency do over. I mean, for god sakes, most of their songs sound the same if you listen to the discography over and over. I don't want to admit it but being that I have no problem doing that, they are kind of the Nickelback of metalcore, just with a little more talent. I still like them though.

Glad you're enjoying the battle, tune in for the final round.