#370 Anthrax — Cursum Perficio Album Review: The Decade-Long Wait Is Over

A lot can happen in a decade…

If you go back to 2016 and mention the terms “TikTok” or “AI Slop” in casual conversation, nobody will have any idea what you’re talking about, mainly because TikTok had just launched and the AI Slop that we’ve all come to know and loathe was still a few years away from becoming a nightmarish reality.

Released September 18, 2026, CURSUM PERFICIO, the 12th studio album by New York thrash veterans ANTHRAX, represents the band’s first new music since 2016’s For All Kings and a return to the world of metal with easily the most unusual album title and bizarre album artwork of their entire catalog.

To be fair, one shan’t judge an album by its name or its artwork alone. CURSUM PERFICIO has a nice variety of old school “ThrashThrax” moments mixed in with darker, heavier tracks that would sound right at home on Persistence of Time or Among The Living. And just to make your brain numb with wonder, there’s one track with such complex time signature changes that it literally sounds as mind boggling as imagining “if math was a color”.

Overall, it’s a grower, and while it does contain elements from their entire back catalog in terms of sound, there is a unique sonic quality present that properly defines ANTHRAX here and now, in the mid 2020’s. The songs have a deceptively streamlined flow to them that are lean on riffs yet potent in their arrangement and delivery. Basically, if you’re an Anthrax fan, you’re going to enjoy this album. And if CURSUM PERFICIO is your very first Anthrax experience, then you have a long, enjoyable journey ahead of you to go back through their entire discography to see how everything fits into the content and context of this album.

Hear one of the most appreciated listener appreciation voicemails we’ve ever received, discover our pick for “album of the decade”, find out how “gray haired loads” can instantly transform any casual conversation into something altogether disgusting, discover our new “Patreon After Dark” that’s exclusively available “in the middle of the night”, and just know that Mike Tyson’s pronunciation of this album is the proper way to say it when you JOIN US in the Bunkerpoon Center For Metal Excellence as we give a listen to CURSUM PERFICIO.

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