ANTHRAX HAVE JUST UNLEASHED SOMETHING DARK
The new album arrives with an equally striking visual.
Published: 19 Sep 26 • Author: Rock Metal Machine • Reading Time: 3 mins
ANTHRAX have released their long-awaited 12th studio album, Cursum Perficio, alongside a striking black-and-white video for its title track. The band also celebrated the release with fans at a Louisville signing following their Louder Than Life festival performance.
RELEASE DETAILS
Artist:
Anthrax
Album:
Cursum Perficio
Release Date:
Out Now
Record Label:
Nuclear Blast Pre Order:
Link Formats:
CD • Digital
PR Label:
ANTHRAX have released their long-awaited 12th full-length studio album Cursum Perficio via Nuclear Blast Records and Megaforce Records (North America) along with a riveting video for the album’s title track. To celebrate the album’s release, the multi-GRAMMY® Award-nominated New York hard rock titans - Scott Ian (guitar), Charlie Benante (drums), Frank Bello (bass), Joey Belladonna (vocals), and Jonathan Donais (guitar) - last night joined fans at a late night in store signing at Louisville’s Guestroom Records following their September 17 performance at the city’s annual Louder than Life festival.
For the album’s title track 'Cursum Perficio', the band have debuted a new black and white video that captures the song’s tone and message. Director Don Argott (Taylor Swift docu-series) utilized his vérité-style footage with narrative elements for the clip that stars actor London May (American musician and actor who’s also known as the drummer and bassist for Glenn Danzig’s post–Misfits / pre–Danzig band Samhain).
🔥 FIREWORKS INSIGHT
Cursum Perficio arrives a decade after Anthrax’s last studio album, making this more than simply another entry in a formidable catalogue. Since 1984’s Fistful Of Metal, the New Yorkers have remained one of thrash’s most durable forces, with Among The Living, State Of Euphoria and Persistence Of Time helping define the genre’s late-’80s peak. The current line-up also reconnects several eras of the band’s history, with Joey Belladonna back alongside Scott Ian, Charlie Benante and Frank Bello. After ten years away from the studio, the real fascination is how Anthrax balance that accumulated history with the need to sound like a band still moving forward.
“‘Cursum Perficio’ brought out the beast in me,” says London May. “I broke my finger the very first day and had to beg them to keep shooting. That was real chain [the chain he is shackled with in the video was real metal…heavy and real…not a prop chain] and real pain. I went through hell and back for Anthrax and Don Argott—and I’d happily do it all again!”
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▶ WATCH THE NEW SINGLE
Want to hear the first taste of Cursum Perficio for yourself? Watch the official video below.
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“The video for ‘Cursum Perficio’ captures all of the themes I’m exploring in the lyric,” Scott Ian notes. “They’re epic in scope…how do you quantify your life? How do you measure oceans of time and what did you do with it? And were all the struggles worth it in the end?”
“What I love about this video is that it matches the tone of the song so well,” Charlie Benante says. “This song has always been the dark horse of the record, this video may be as well.”
What I love about this video is that it matches the tone of the song so well
Charlie Benante
ANTHRAX have previously released three singles and videos from Cursum Perficio:
'It’s For The Kids' is a classic ANTHRAX ripper locked and loaded with buzzsaw-sharp riffs, explosive drumming, and a howling and head-banging hook. It undoubtedly has all the makings of a future live staple. Listen HERE and watch the official music video HERE.
It was followed by 'The Edge Of Perfection', highlighted by clean guitar echoes and cymbals that gently shake until a blastbeat blows open the doors. Guitars buzz like a motorboat on the River Styx, making waves through the darkness. In their wake, a crushing rhythm trails the melody of lead singer Joey Belladonna’s lament, “My heart breaks…I’m on the edge…I’m on the edge of perfection.” Listen to “The Edge Of Perfection” HERE and watch the official music video HERE.
And last month’s 'Everybody's Got a Plan' featured a live performance video cut with behind-the-scenes backstage fun with cutaways to classic B&W boxing footage that underline the song’s central lyrics: “Everybody’s got a plan/That’s until they get punched in the face…” Watch the video and listen to the incendiary song, with its massive riffs and ferocious vocals, HERE.
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The CURSUM PERFICIO track listing is as follows:
Persistence of Memory
The Long Goodbye
It’s For the Kids
Everybody’s Got A Plan
The Edge Of Perfection
Infectious
NYC93
Cursum Perficio
T.O.M.B
Watch It Go
My Victory
Cursum Perficio marks the band’s first record in ten years since 2016’s For All Kings, which debuted in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200. The phrase Cursum Perficio is Latin for “My journey has come to an end,” “My journey is over,” or “I complete my journey.” It proves apropos for such a complete body of work.
The band dove into recording Cursum Perficio in earnest during 2022, working out of Dave Grohl’s Studio 606 in Los Angeles. They carefully pieced together what would be this magnum opus, mining their history with reverence, delivering on fan expectations tenfold, and broadening the scope of their signature sound. Produced by Jay Ruston and ANTHRAX, the result is an album that’s as angry, aggressive, and alive as their most celebrated fare.
Their journey has brought them to Cursum Perficio - a powerful, pummeling, and poetic milestone in ANTHRAX’s 45-year career.
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Images courtesy of Travis Shinn / Nuclear Blast
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