Space: it’s big, it’s dark, and it’s scary, full of the gnawed remains of those that tried and failed. And yet there exist a limited number of bands that are willing to brave its deep dark depths to bring us back quality music, travailing for light years to convey the exact experience of journeying through space. Of course, whether or not Farflung have actually voyaged into the vacuum is a question that won’t matter once you’ve wrapped your ears around their seventh full-length A Wound In Eternity, because musically, this band have been all the way. Few deserve Hawkwind’s crown as Space-Rock kings so much as Farflung, here presenting an ever-so-slightly more Punk take on the British spacemen’s magical formula. Seriously, these guys could be a tribute act, so similar is the style, even down to vocals.

What saves Farflung from being dismissed as mere copycats is that they’re damn good at this Space-Rock game. The first three songs on the album are little short of incredible, whether you’re au fait with the Hawklords or not, and when you dig a little deeper and learn that Farflung has been doing their thang since 1995 at least, it’s hard not to respect them. Urban Planet kicks the trip off, electronics building before a catchy riff and distinctly English-accented vocals start up (odd since the band are apparently American!). It’s the easiest song on the album to get into, listener-friendly melodies and smiley happy Stoner riffs combining to form a great track that’s sure to hook the listener. Endless Drifting Wreck flows seamlessly on, a similar style but with more of the instrumental psychedelia that really sets this album amongst the stars.

Things really get interesting on Like It Has Never Been, the laid-back, drugged-out feel of the opening strums and the ‘you have been released by science/and I’m glad to have you here’ lyrics adding much to the space-travel theme, especially with later moments like the vocoder-ised spoken vocals. Stella Volo sounds like a laid-back moment from Aussie alchemists Alchemist, and Lx takes a book from the Post-Rock page. There seems to be some sort of story being told throughout the album, but I’ll leave it up to the intrepid few to fathom these depths; instead, I’ll say that the album has no weak moments, and that even for someone who’s heard a few Hawkwind albums in his time like yours truly, A Wound In Eternity is an excellent album. As you’d expect, atmosphere rules the roost here, and even in slightly Poppier moments like the end of Silver Shrooms you still get that ‘spacey’ feeling. The psychedelic anthem that is Invincible could have come straight from the aftereffects of a bad trip at a MC5 concert, such is the power running through the veins of these guys – the best Space Rock has a hefty dose of Classic Rock in the ‘influences’ panel, and Farflung are no exception.

There’s one major disappointment in A Wound For Eternity; the lack of a fifteen-minute finale, a psychodelic spazz-out that paints an aural picture of the cosmos exploding to top things off. Still, given that each individual song comes closer to describing the sheer effect of the outer limits on mere mortals than most bands manage with their entire discographies, it’s impossible to criticise Farflung for what is, at the end of the day, a damn damn good album.