From contemporary reviews, J. D. Considine lamented in Rolling Stone how the band had decided to maintain their old sound on the album, despite new heavy rock "fast power chords had made Aerosmith's bluesy boogie almost obsolete".

He praised "Perry lookalike Jimmy Crespo"'s guitar playing, but wrote that "despite an occasional burst of primal energy, much of the LP rocks by rote.

"[10] Ken Tucker of The Philadelphia Inquirer gave the album a one out of five star rating, opining that "It's sad when once-vital hard rock bands outlast their usefulness, if only because there are so few of them around.

"[7] AllMusic Greg Prato wrote that Aerosmith "didn't possess the magical chemistry of their '70s classics" without Perry and Whitford, but the band could "still rock out" producing their "most studio-enhanced and experimental record up to this point" with "a few pleasant surprises", like "the psychedelicized 'Joanie's Butterfly'".

[4] Canadian journalist Martin Popoff described the album as "a bit patchy" with highlights being "Jailbait", "Lightning Strikes" and "Joanie's Butterfly" and the rest "variously lumbering, untuneful and forced", and concluded that, although Aerosmith "could barely function", they "never made a bad record.

Never mind the Spinal Tap-anticipating Stonehenge cover – Rock in a Hard Place is one kick-ass album… 'Lightning Strikes', 'Bolivian Ragamuffin' and 'Joanie's Butterfly' are classic Aerosmith songs – no matter who played on them.