Anthrax is currently navigating an extensive touring schedule alongside the rollout of their next studio album. After concluding a Canadian run with Megadeth and Exodus, the group is slated to join Iron Maiden for a world tour starting in September.
Coinciding with the upcoming tour, Anthrax will release their first full-length record since 2016’s For All Kings. Originally scheduled for May, the album, titled Cursum Perficio, was pushed to September following the band’s recent signing with Independent Artist Group.
In a recent interview with BraveWords, guitarist Scott Ian and drummer Charlie Benante discussed the production timeline and the origin of the album’s Latin title. When asked if the phrase means “staying the course” or “finishing the journey,” Scott Ian responded humorously: “You’re asking the wrong people. Neither of us majored in Latin or went to medical school.”
Charlie Benante clarified that the title was actually inspired by a documentary about Marilyn Monroe. “There was a whole idea going around about, all the four bands, the Big 4 bands, kind of getting to the point where, ‘Wow, this may be the time that this could be the last record’. And I was watching this Marilyn Monroe documentary. She has this plaque in her house, which said, ‘Cursum Perficio’ which means ‘My journey has come to an end’ or ‘My journey is over’. And we were talking, and ‘What about this?’. We don’t really have to say that this is the end.”
Scott Ian added that the title also reflects the lengthy, decade-long process of creating the record. “I look at it as, it’s also the journey of this album.”
He detailed how the timeline was fractured by a three-year touring cycle for For All Kings that ended in late 2019, followed immediately by the global pandemic.
“Because we started – it literally was, just the other day, the ten year anniversary of For All Kings. But I think what most people don’t realize, because they’re not in the band, and they don’t analyze the minutiae of Anthrax’s schedule, and they haven’t lived it, but, For All Kings came out in early 2016 and we didn’t finish that touring cycle until November of 2019. And then, the idea was, ‘All right, we’re going to take off for the holidays and then we’ll gear up in 2020 and start writing and start putting together the new record’. There was already stuff going back and forth,” he explained.
He continued: “Early 2020 COVID hits. So then, you know, tack on another two years of, kind of, us as a band not creatively being together, but individually working on things and absorbing things. So that right there, that’s like five years. I get it, it’s been 10 years, but really it’s only been five as far as us making a record because it was three years of touring and two years of not knowing if we were ever going to be in a band again because nobody knew what the f**k was happening. I remember we’d be texting each other, blah, blah, blah, ‘You think we’ll ever get to play a show?’”
Regarding the new material, Scott highlighted a specific track titled “Edge of Perfection“. During the writing process, the guitarist recognized the song’s potential before lyrics were even drafted. “Even just as an instrumental. I was like, ‘I think this is the best thing we’ve ever written’,” he stated. “And now, even now as the completed song, I think it’s the best Anthrax song of all time. And that’s putting it up against anything on Among The Living. I think it’s the best song we’ve ever written”
The physical release of Cursum Perficio will feature elaborate packaging to align with the ongoing vinyl resurgence. Charlie Benante revealed that the record will include a pop-up element and praised the cover art created by illustrator Mark Stutzman. “I mean, we’re gonna do a lot on this record with the visuals, because it’s stunning. The album cover is stunning. It’s a beautiful piece of art,” he said.
