Anthrax: This Is Not An Exit

When a band decides to call their new album “Cursum Perficio”, it’s understandable that alarm bells might start ringing. That title seems fairly innocuous at first, but once you run it through Google translate and discover that it’s Latin for “my journey is at an end,” you’d naturally assume that they were signalling their imminent break up. According to ANTHRAX drummer Charlie Benante though, this is a misunderstanding. Despite a few rumours circulating online, they are not planning to quit any time soon, and the title refers more to the creation of the record itself.

“I’m not saying this is our final album,” he tells Distorted Sound. “It’s taken me a long time to get the motivation to write music again. Yeah, it’s been ten years between records, but it didn’t take ten years to create this. The journey wasn’t just making this record, it’s been going on a long, long time. This album is the culmination of that.”

He’s joined us over a Zoom call, and despite being a little bleary eyed from a night out watching RUSH, the veteran sticksman is clearly excited about the impending release. He’s no stranger to promoting a record, yet Charlie talks with the giddy enthusiasm you’d expect of a young newcomer who’s about to get his first major label album, not a 63-year-old man with decades under his belt.

“The people who have heard it, the response has been so overwhelming, and it’s so great to finally have people hear it, because I’ve lived with it for so long. It was like, ‘oh my God, let’s just get this out already!’”

But let’s address the elephant in the recording studio: it’s been a very long time since we got a new ANTHRAX album. To put things into perspective, their previous effort, 2016’s For All Kings, came out when Barack Obama was still the United States President. This was before Thanos disintegrated half of The Avengers, and when Harambe the Gorilla was alive and well. Hell, Stranger Things hadn’t even come out, so why exactly has it taken so long?

There’s no single reason, it’s more a cumulation of multiple factors. They changed their management team, Charlie got hired for a high-profile position in the reformed PANTERA, and the COVID-19 pandemic contributed to the gap as well. We’ve heard Cursum Perficio though, and trust us, it’s really good. It’s a natural continuation of For All Kings, but with a few surprises and experimentations along the way. There are barnstorming metal tracks like It’s For The Kids and Everybody’s Got A Plan that’ll more than satisfy fans of the classic ANTHRAX style, but there’s one serious eyebrow-raiser right smack in the middle of the track list. The Edge Of Perfection captures how adventurous ANTHRAX can be.

“It’s so funny how that song has become everyone’s favourite,” he laughs. “The original demo idea for it was like, seven minutes long. I never thought that this song would become as catchy, but it has. For some reason, this is the song that people gravitate to right away, which I’m happy about, because it’s one of my favourite songs off the record too.”

The Edge Of Perfection has been edited down a little since that first demo, but it remains a hefty centrepiece for Cursum Perficio. It’s a track defined by blast beats and melancholic chords and even has hints of black metal in it. Until Joey Belladonna’s recognisable voice joins in, it could easily be mistaken for another band entirely.

It’s likely to trigger a debate among thrash purists, but if Cursum Perficio is the result of years of musical development, The Edge Of Perfection is where the evolution is most evident. Don’t be fooled though, ANTHRAX haven’t gone into Spinal Tap Mark 2 mode: the majority of the songs are as energetic and upbeat as they’ve always been. They’ve long had a reputation as the lovable party dudes of the Big Four, and Charlie is perfectly happy being an alternative to the intense technicality of MEGADETH or the Satanic hell thrash of SLAYER.

“We’ve never taken ourselves seriously. We’ve taken the music serious, but as far as getting up onstage and just being goofballs and having a good time…that’s it man. If you’re gonna watch us for sixty minutes, ninety minutes. I want to take you somewhere you can have a good fucking time. I hope you turn to your friend afterwards and say, ‘that was awesome!’”

You can hear that sheer joy in songs like NYC 93, a riotous love letter to attending CBGB’s gigs in their younger days, or in the remarkably heavy Watch It Go, a track that Charlie describes as “the one Dimebag Daryl would play on if he were still with us.” It’s a harsh but uplifting number, and the title comes from a catchphrase that Dimebag was fond of. It’s a subtle and quietly moving way to pay tribute to the man, but it’s also not a ballad. It’s a big, ballsy mosh number.

While the wait might have been a long one and the production process almost as slow as George R.R. Martin’s writing speed, Cursum Perficio has a lot to recommend. It’s a barn burning, fifty-three minutes of metal music that retains the cheeky, party-bro sensibilities of their old work, but with added layers of complexity and ingenuity. ANTHRAX in 2026 might be older and wiser than they were when Madhouse first dropped, but they’re still unabashed headbangers at heart. So, with such a colourful career behind him, what advice would Charlie Benante give his younger self?

“Enjoy it. This experience you’re about to have is unlike anything. It’s yours, don’t stress the small things and enjoy the ride.”

He speaks like a man who’s planning to enjoy the ride for a while yet. Cursum Perficio is not the end, and is a late-career feather in the band’s increasingly large hat. The only thing that’s missing is a track about Judge Death, a topic that ANTHRAX fans have been crying out for since I Am The Law came out in 1987.

Except… don’t give up hope just yet. Turns out, they might have one in the pipeline. “We thought about that recently, and we are working with the people at 2000AD and trying to do something with them. There’s an anniversary coming up after all.”

This hint of a sequel to one of their most beloved tracks sent our interviewer home happy, even if the suggestion of calling it I Am Not The Law was politely declined.

Cursum Perficio is out now via Nuclear Blast Records and Megaforce Records. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS132 here.

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