Photo: Travis Shinn
Anthrax are back in full force. After a decade-long gap between albums, the New York thrash veterans return with their 12th studio record Cursum Perficio, arriving September 18 via Megaforce Records.
Lead single "It's For The Kids" wastes no time making the case. It's a direct thrash charge built on serrated riffs, high-speed drumming, and a chorus engineered for live impact — exactly the kind of opener that justifies a decade's wait.
The accompanying video leans into a familiar visual thread, echoing the energy of the "Madhouse" era while putting fans directly into the frame, cutting between performance and crowd reaction in real time.
It's the first full-length from Anthrax since 2016's For All Kings, the band's Billboard Top 10 entry that now feels like the closing chapter of a long stretch of quiet momentum building underneath it. The title Cursum Perficio translates from Latin as "I complete my journey," a phrase that surfaced during the album's long, interrupted creation cycle and eventually locked into place as the record's anchor. According to the band, Scott Ian describes that timeline as baked into the music itself, shaped by a stalled pre-pandemic start, then a reset once the band finally regrouped in person.
The band describes the record as fast, aggressive, and unrelenting, but still sharp enough to carry melody and hooks without losing impact. The band cites Charlie Benante as calling it a culmination point, pulling from everything since Worship Music while still pushing forward instead of looking back.
The track functions as a reset and a statement at once: fast, tight, and intentionally loud, signaling a record that re-engages the band's earliest instincts without sounding like a reenactment of them.
