Clutch are hardly a band that require an introduction after having already indelibly left their own stamp on heavy music during the course of their over a decade long running career. But perhaps the bands first ever live album does deserve a bit of foreword when considering the circumstances surrounding it. Originally seeing a release independently last year through the bands own record label, "Live At Googolplex" has now been repackaged, complete with two extra bonus tracks ("Escape From The Prison Planet" and "Rats") and national distribution, courtesy of Megaforce Records.

Anyone whose been following Clutch's brand of trenchfooted stoner rock over the past few years will quickly tell you that the group have made their living by playing out live. Countless tour after tour have been conquered by the band and with a sound as commercially unfriendly as theirs, who can blame them. Being the road warriors that these down home MD/VA based veterans are, it only seems fitting that their inaugural live album gets a fair chance at a wide release; Especially when it fully documents the bands growly jams, which toil heavily in the territory mapped out by such greats as Black Sabbath, Kyuss and Led Zeppelin among others, in their native environment. Captured at four different shows that took place over the past two years, "Live At The Googolplex" is indeed a faithful testament to the bands on-stage chops and should please many a diehard fan, if not for the competent performances contained than at least for the discography spanning track list on hand.

However, despite being a solid live outing with a raw mix that nicely compliments the atmosphere in which it was recorded, "Live At The Googolplex" does suffer from a few shortcomings which can hinder its enjoyment. First and foremost, the fact that the album's meat and bones were culled from a number of different performances somewhat ruins the whole fantasy of being there for an entire live set. Sounding a bit scattered to the more discerning ear, its hard not to think that the recording of this album would have better been suited to an entire set from a packed hometown show. Other small gripes against the record come in the form of the lack of material from 1998's "The Elephant Riders" and the reliance on material from their last opus "Pure Rock Fury", which rakes in a whopping four tracks. Undoubtedly this record will cure any itch to see the band live during their downtime and side project stints, but it also does leave one hoping that a more definitive live offering will follow sometime down the road as well.