From my perspective it seems to be metal vs non metal fans. Im not a heavy metal fan and like it but I had a friend who was big into metal and thought it was a sellout album. Basically he felt it was not metal enough. Like pop metal. This was around the time also when my fav band jethro tull was given heavy metal band of the year (which even fans like myself can point to the bands influence on things like metal but certainly don't see them as a metal band) so he was pretty pissed music wise.

I can't stand it myself. They were so overplayed and overhyped when I was a kid and I've more or less just come to loathe their songs as a result. Both the band and the album.