Ahh ok...i'm not sure I can really rate them against each other personally as I like them for different reasons. So I personally can't really see Axl or Slash as being of a better quality than the other - although i'll grant you Slash seems to turn on the magic far more often/easily than Axl does. But I don't really look at it as one is better than the other. Where we will agree is about how awesome Slash is. I'm always awed by him, especially live, but he stands out...even a throw-away (in the sence its routene for him to do this kind of thing) guest peformance like on the new Alice Cooper song "Vengance is Mine" is pretty damn impressive. Great outro solo!

Anyway...yeah...IFOCS is one of my favourite albums of all time. I think its head and shoulders above anything else as Slash's best guitar work to date (just my opinion). I'm not sure if i'd rank it over UYI in general in terms of the entire band (with vocals) - as that's a hard match - for one because its like 14 songs vs 30 songs. Although I think my favourites on IFOCS are better than much of UYI - but maybe not all 30 songs. Guitar wise i think snakepit has the edge...but I do miss axl's vocals and lyrics. I dig the snakepit vocals on about 1/2 of the record..but there's some tunes that i'd be lying if i didn't think would have been made better if Axl had accepted that record as GNR and added his lyrics.

I think the anti-slash ism comes mostly from people who are only familiar with VR. VR has some great songs...but slash was clearly going for a more modern style than in Snakepit 1...and i guess it wasn't for everyone.

My test for the leaks is as follows:

Step 1: Take the 3 songs you consider "worst" off UYI 1+2 (I wont list names because one thing I know is that everyone has different concepts of what/if any the 'filler' tracks are).

Step 2: Take the 3 songs you consider "best" of the leaks. (Again..it seems there is no consensus among fans as to what this is...some love a song some hate it..so choose your own).

Step 3: Make a new verison of UYI 1+2 with the 3 tracks you selected in  step 2 substituted into the places of the tracks you picked in Step 1.

Step 4: Listen to it back. Is the new album drasticly worse or better than it was before? My guess is around about the same, and possibily better depending on how much you dislike the songs in step 1.

I mean old gnr is a magic that may never be repeated. But I feel the leaks show CD has a chance at being a decent stand alone album, just as in my opinion, Slash's solo work outside of GNR is descent. Whenever I hear either of them without the other I miss the other one - but they still have enough talent to survive on their own for sure

^ I disagree with your dislike of the leaks as I enjoy them, and find Axl's lyrics facinating and his melodies haunting. However I strongly agree that it's madness to say Slash hasn't done anything of worth since GNR.
Some of his best peformances are outside of GNR. Bottom line - Axl and Slash write pretty different styles of music these days - but they both fucking kick ass - then and now.