Anthrax — Cursum Perficio review

Anthrax release Cursum Perficio on September 18 via Nuclear Blast. The title, which translates from Latin as 'My Journey Is Over', frames the record as a late-career statement: part farewell, part fresh chapter. For fans who’ve waited a decade since For All Kings, it’s an album that matters because it tries to both honour the band’s past and push them into new territory.

The record opens surprisingly gently. Persistence Of Memory arrives with a short orchestral intro that nods to 1990’s Persistence Of Time, then rolls into The Long Goodbye — a mid-tempo, melodic chugger about prolonged loss that underlines the album’s theme of finality rather than delivering a showstopping slam.

When Anthrax hit their stride, they do it properly. It’s For The Kids is classic Anthrax: Madhouse-style guitar squeals, pile-driving drums and a mosh-ready chorus that masks weighty lyrics. From there the album alternates moods and tempos, refusing to be a simple nostalgia trip.

At the centre of the record is The Edge Of Perfection, a near-seven-minute experiment built on swaying atmospherics with flashes of frostbitten black metal. Guitarist Scott Ian has hailed it as “the best song Anthrax have ever written.” It’s a bold move — longform, brooding and surprisingly successful — and it makes the album feel risky in a good way.

Elsewhere Infectious leans into slow, doomy rhythms; NYC 93 returns to punk-metal stomp; the title track trades pure thrash for harder-edged rock; T.O.M.B. rides a driving groove; Watch It Go nods to Slayer’s rasp and drifts into grungy, Load-era textures. My Victory closes the record with familiar heft and melody, the kind of mid-range anthem Anthrax have made their comfort zone.

There are excellent moments throughout and genuine surprises for a band 45 years in, but the album seldom reaches the monumental scale its title suggests. Cursum Perficio feels less like a definitive curtain call and more like a measured, sometimes daring statement from a band still willing to experiment.