A Wound In Eternity

If there were ever proof that stoner rock has become its own genre, it would be the fact that an album would have song titles like "Endless Drifting Wreck" and "Silver Shrooms" — given the band, it would actually be more surprising if it didn't have song titles like that. Farflung have been at it often and long enough that by this point their jacked-up space boogie — still audibly in debt to the patron saints of the whole shebang, Hawkwind, but no less enjoyable for that reason — gives exactly what anyone who favors the approach would want: great album graphics perfect for black T-shirts, more echo slathered over the vocals than imaginable, and a feeling that everything and everyone involved in the creation of it are all collectively careening down a cosmic highway at light speed while screaming "YEEEAARRRRRGHHHH" out of the windows. As one does. Farflung do again bring their own twists amid all the feedback and forward propulsion and general mania, most especially in the alternating of the expected howls into the void with demi-spoken word intensity on songs like "Stella Volo" and "Endless Drifting Wreck," adding an almost Devo-like nervousness to them. Meanwhile, Farflung can always do slow as well as fast, and "Like It Has Never Been" and the ominous slow burn build of "Invincible," with a midsection like Galacticus stomping his way through another planet's wreckage, make the eventual high-speed rampage all the more effective. As for "Silver Shrooms" itself, starting with a steady chug and soft vocals before turning into spiraling solos and a sense that everything has just kicked in big time seems like as good a translation of a certain kind of experience from one realm to another as any.