Florida-based thrashers THE ABSENCE check in with the following update from guitarist Patrick Pintavalle:

"Hey there,

As many of you know we are writing material for our up coming record, Enemy Unbound. I just wanted to clear the air for everyone, we were suposed to record in March but the timing just wasn't right for us, we've been really looking at every song very closely and trying to really make them as great as they can be.

We have finally booked the studio time and will be entering Mana recording studios once again on September 10th.

I stated earlier this year that we had some Ideas to get the fans involved with the record... Well I guess its time to let the cat out of the bag. We have alot of fans that are guitar players and thought it would be cool to let them show off their talents that they have by holding a contest for one of our fans to track a guest lead on our new record! We will be releasing the exact details on this contest next week.

For now, let me just give you the rough Idea of the contest - There will be a demo track section to a song that we will be releasing online that the fans will be able to download, they will then have to post the lead they come up with on YouTube and be judged by us on Originality, Melody and Technical ability... If you ask me I think thats pretty F'n cool!

I couldnt even imagine growing up and being able to track a guest lead on one of the records of the bands I listen to... man, the internet is something special.

Anyway, Back to the record in progress. I have been busting my ass on protools for the last year. Staying up very late every night trying to really get these pre-production tracks together for us to analyze, don't get me wrong... it still beats construction work.

The thing that we are noticing the most is how different all the songs are from each other, there will be a song that has an OLD MAN'S CHILD feel to it. Then a song that has a METALLICA ...And Justice For All feel to it.

I cant wait until people hear this thing, It is truly going to be something special.

We will keep you posted."