ANTHRAX have released their long-awaited 12th studio album, Cursum Perficio, today, September 18, via Nuclear Blast Records and Megaforce Records in North America. Alongside the album, the New York metal veterans have unveiled a new video for its title track, “Cursum Perficio.”
The release marks ANTHRAX’s first studio album in a decade, following 2016’s For All Kings. The current lineup features Scott Ian on guitar, Charlie Benante on drums, Frank Bello on bass, Joey Belladonna on vocals, and Jonathan Donais on guitar.
To celebrate the release, ANTHRAX joined fans for a late-night signing at Guestroom Records in Louisville following the band’s September 17 appearance at the Louder Than Life festival.
Watch ANTHRAX’s “Cursum Perficio”:
Directed by Don Argott, the black-and-white video for “Cursum Perficio” combines vérité-style footage with narrative elements reflecting the themes explored in the song.
The video stars musician and actor London May, known in part for his work with Samhain. According to May, the physical demands of the shoot were very real.
“‘Cursum Perficio’ brought out the beast in me,” May says. “I broke my finger the very first day and had to beg them to keep shooting. That was real chain and real pain. I went through hell and back for Anthrax and Don Argott—and I’d happily do it all again!”
Scott Ian explained that the visual treatment closely follows the questions at the center of the song’s lyrics.
“The video for ‘Cursum Perficio’ captures all of the themes I’m exploring in the lyric,” Ian says. “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?”
Charlie Benante added:
“What I love about this video is that it matches the tone of the song so well. This song has always been the dark horse of the record, this video may be as well.”
Buy and stream Cursum Perficio
Cursum Perficio Track Listing
- 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
Before the album’s arrival, ANTHRAX offered several previews of the record, beginning with “It’s For The Kids,” a fast and riff-heavy track driven by the band’s familiar thrash attack.
“The Edge Of Perfection” followed, shifting between restrained guitar passages and more aggressive sections before opening into Joey Belladonna’s melodic vocals.
Last month, the band released “Everybody’s Got A Plan,” accompanied by a performance video combining footage of ANTHRAX onstage and backstage with vintage black-and-white boxing imagery. The visuals reinforce the song’s central refrain: “Everybody’s got a plan / That’s until they get punched in the face.”
ANTHRAX Complete a Decade-Long Journey
Cursum Perficio arrives ten years after For All Kings, which was released in 2016 and reached the Top 10 of the Billboard 200.
The album’s Latin title can be translated as “My journey has come to an end,” “My journey is over,” or “I complete my journey,” tying directly into the reflective themes explored throughout the record and its title track.
ANTHRAX began working seriously on the album in 2022, recording at Dave Grohl’s Studio 606 in Los Angeles. The record was produced by Jay Ruston and ANTHRAX.
Four years of recording and a decade after their previous studio album, Cursum Perficio opens the next chapter in a career that has now stretched across approximately 45 years.