Songfacts®:

• Speed Of Darkness is the fifth studio album by the Irish-American Celtic punk band Flogging Molly. The set was recorded at Echo Mountain, an old church building turned recording studio in Asheville, North Carolina. It was produced by Ryan Hewitt, who has also worked with the Red Hot Chili Peppers and The Avett Brothers. The album was released on May 31, 2011 by the band's own record label, Borstal Beat Records.
• The title track and album title was inspired by the experiences of Dino Misetic, the artist who did the CD cover, growing up in the Balkans during the Bosnian War between 1992-1995. Frontman Dave King explained to Alternative Press magazine: "His dad was telling us about how fast war came to the country and how bad it got, so quickly. He showed us a book that Dino was quoted in as a kid, called Sarajevo Marlboro [by Miljenko Jergovic], and [Dino] said, 'In school, they taught us about the speed of light, but they never told us what the speed of darkness is.' It happened so quickly, how things changed and the whole downturn happened—I think an apt title for what we're all about. The war was a devastating time for people. The line from the song, 'We set our course for Americ-ay'—literally, Dino and his family put a backpack on and made it to the United States."