I really enjoy live albums. It’s just that typical ‘roaring’ sound of people cheering and applauding in between songs, the bare bone arrangements and sweaty energy, bands spreading their four minute songs out over ten minutes as if it were peanut butter. Live albums show what a band is worth with their instruments in their hands, on the edge of discomfort in boiling hot rooms, a few beers chucked down their throats. It’s the moment of truth, it’s the moment of sublime assay. With “Off the Beaten Track” Austrian hard rockers Mother’s Cake have definitely passed that testing. Six songs of rigorous prowess and blood-curdling beatings show Mother’s Cake to be at the top of their game. The terrific blend of hard rock, progressive rock and funky blues displayed on their debut album “Creation’s Finest” has been stripped of its sleek production and spacey glitter, entering the earthly hollows of human grit and violent retort.
