I would guess black would be acceptable to most everyone. I'd be happy however they are anodized, but if you're going for "least likely to make the masses puke", black is pretty middle of the road.
I think I've seen that gold type of anodizing and it does make it look kind of cheap, like those cheap winch hooks you see at hardware stores.
I'd prefer black if anything, silver second. Black won't make the barrel look like a section of pipe, and more like one of those nice CNI laser modules.