TAC will hate me for this but I really stopped listening to Maiden after Powerslave,
Wki, I would never hate you! You're one of my 5 favorite posters here!
TBH, I completeky agree with you on Powerslave. I was a huge Maiden fan at the time, having already sen the World Piece Tour. I found Powerslave very contrived. I didn't care for 2 Minutes (with the ripoff Swords & Tequila, Power & The Glory, Stand Up And Shout, Flash Rockin' Man riff). I found the middle section of Powerslave too choreographed, and found the bloated Rime long for long's sake. In fact, I might've skipped the tour had Accept not been opening.
But I found Somewhere In Time very refreshing. I'm surprised you didn't. It was quite different from where they had been.
The Blaze albums are both severely flawed (though both are filled with latent greatness), and the reunion albums are all sorts of awesome. Hey, they are what they are.