Absolute Darkness are streaming Witness To A Dying World in full, a day before it arrives, and the record ends on a cover of Vio-lence's "World In A World".
That choice is local rather than decorative. Ron Dorn grew up watching Vio-lence, Death Angel and Forbidden when they were new bands in the same part of California, and says he wanted to "stay as faithful to the original as possible while taking advantage of modern recording technology".
The ten songs before it were written differently from the last record. "Everyone contributed ideas throughout the writing process, and the songs benefited from having four people shaping them instead of one," Dorn said, which is a polite way of saying the band stopped being one man's project.
The subjects are corruption, propaganda, war and addiction, told through people rather than slogans: "Attritional Warfare" on a battlefield, "Snake Oil" on the opioid crisis. The third single went out a fortnight ago, and Harry Ahlas mixed and mastered the album.