Review Of The New Anthrax Album "Cursum Perficio".
Band Name: Anthrax
Album Title: Cursum Perficio
Persistence Of Memory
The Long Goodbye
It’s For The Kids
Everybody’s Got A Plan
The Edge Of Perfection
Infectious
NVC 93
Cursum Perficio
T.O.M.B.
Watch It Go
My Victory
Rating: 3/10
Running Time: 53:43
Label: Nuclear Blast Records
Release Date: September 18, 2026
Version Reviewed: Digipak CD
Band Members:
Joey Belladonna - Vocals
Scott Ian - Guitars
Charlie Benante - Drums, Percussion
Frank Bello - Bass
Jonathan Donas - Guitars
Additional Album Info:
All Songs By Anthrax
Produced By Jay Ruston And Anthrax
Executive Producer - Mike Monteralu
Mixed By Jay Ruston
Mastered By Paul Logus
Recorded At Studio 606 And The Mix Room D In Los Angeles
Engineering Assistance By Oliver Roman, Charlie Lo Presti, John “Lou” Lousteau, Zeus And Andy Lagis
Assisted By Wiley Hodgen
Additional Engineering By John Douglas
Overdubs And Pre-Production At Secret Hand Studios
Engineered By Trey Cornish And Jeff Friedl
Additional Recording At The Pesky Barnacle
Engineered By Mike “Lightning” Balboa
Pre-Production By Bob Brunner At Mates Studios, Los Angeles, And Charlie Waymire (Engineer) At Ultimate Studios, Los Angeles
Assistant Engineers: Asim Ali And Andy Lagis
CD Cover Concept By Charlie Benante
CD Cover Art By Mark Stutzman
CD Layout By Greg Caputo
It’s been ten years since Anthrax’s last studio album. I loved the band on the first four or so albums, but then after that they were awful and for the last quite a few years they only had one great album in my opinion, while most of the others sucked. “Cursum Perficio” is the band’s thirteenth album. Does it mosh like the albums of their heyday or is it something you shouldn't even be bothered with? Read on and find out!
Ugh, yeah… this is kind of awful. It rates low as an album, unless you’re rating it on a suck scale and then it rates pretty high. The band has spent decades making music more to jump and down to at live shows rather than making music to slam and mosh to. I know we are all getting older, but this is just a very watered down and mediocre album. There are a few old thrashy Anthrax moments, especially with Scott’s trademark guitar playing, but come on. This is just bad. Benante rarely plays fast and Belladonna sounds tired and uninspired. It has some modern/nu metal moments that are cringy, then you’ll hear a bit of heavy moshing and think “Hey, this shit’s good!”, and within seconds it’s back to being lame again. Oh, how the mighty have fallen. If you’re into mellower metal or radio metal, you may like this. The musicianship is great, but the style? Sheesh! The lyrics are about pop culture, social commentary and human struggle. Meh. The production is great, as is always the case with Anthrax albums since almost the beginning.
The cover art is the best thing about this album. It’s some sort of dark, bizarre travelling side show in the deep woods. A magician has just sawn a woman’s body in half and the top half of her seems to be floating as blood drains out of the bottom half. Nightmarish creatures are all over the place. A spectral wolf is cruelly chained to a stake in the ground. There’s a six-legged spider creature thing that looks like it is carrying a muffin on its back, some eggs that have baby creatures spewing out of them and more. It really is a nice piece of cover art. Maybe the artist should have made the album? Inside the twelve-page booklet you will find all of the album lyrics as well as all of the album and band information. On the inside and back of the digipak there are some band photos of people that should be ashamed of themselves for making this album.
I wasn’t expecting much out of “Cursum Perficio”, but this was worse than I thought it would be. It is just so middle of the road, boring and uninspired that I have to give it a low rating. Are there moments of greatness to be found here? Sure, but not enough to warrant a purchase. Listen to “Fistfull Of Metal” instead.
As always, I like to ask my readers to support the bands, labels and artists by purchasing the physical copies of the albums you love. But not this one. Do not buy it.
Blasted By Britton Facebook Group.
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