I'm an 80's metal head. I even played bass in a metal band up until 2009.
The Black album was an abortion, but I could forgive them for it.
3 main things drove me away from them.
First, they essentially released Cliff 'em All and then relegated Cliff to nothing more than a footnote. I went to see them on their black album tour and they played a half hour video before the show of which, I kid you not, 30-45 seconds at the beginning mentioned Cliff. The remaining 29 minutes made a point of excluding him. Even in clips of old shows and behind the scenes footage from those years they purposefully omitted anything that had him in it. To top that off they billed it as a 4 hour show and played maybe 1.5 hours and called it a night.
Second, Load of shit, and Reload of shit.
Third, and what was the final nail in the coffin was the Napster incident. For a band, who were where they were only because of bootlegging, to unleash the lawyers on their fans was the biggest kick in the balls, douche bag move I've ever witnessed from anyone in the genre. I wouldn't have heard or bought their albums, or gone to their shows had it not been for my cousin giving me a dubbed cassette tape of Ride The Lightning.
I vowed then that they would never see another dime from me, and they haven't and never will. I wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire.
I still listen to the Cliff era music, but that's the only music they ever put out really worth listening to anyway.
I'm all about Maiden though!