Musical Style
Slash's Snakepit's music was often described as hard rock and blues rock with elements of southern rock. The band were also often described as Slash's solo or side project though Slash maintained that they were a band, stating "everybody wrote, everybody had equal input even though I had my name on it." Rolling Stone reviewer J.D. Considine noted the differences between Guns N' Roses and Slash's Snakepit on their first album, stating that "Guns ' Roses typically treat the melody as the most important part of the song, most of what slithers out of the Snakepit emphasizes the playing." He noted that singer Eric Dover "conveys the raw-throated intensity of a hard-rock frontman" and "he avoids the genre's most obvious excesses." The riff to "Good to Be Alive" drew a comparison to Chuck Berry while the musicianship on the album was praised. Stephen Thomas Erlewine of Allmusic stated that "there's little argument that Slash is a great guitarist" who is "capable of making rock and blues clichés sound fresh". Reviewing Ain't Life Grand for Allmusic, Steve Huey described second singer Rod Jackson as "a combination of '80s pop-metal bluster and Faces-era Rod Stewart" with a "touch of Aerosmith", a description that he felt also fitted the band as a whole. He noted, though, that Slash's guitar playing was "tame" and stated that the main problem of the album was the songwriting, though it was "still a passable, workmanlike record that will definitely appeal to fans of grimy, old-school hard rock." Malcolm Dome of Classic Rock stated that "from the moment that "Been There Lately" opens, there's a vibe here that was missing before" and that Ain't Life Grand showed "purpose, direction and individuality."
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