Well, as sad as this is sometimes, our heroes from the Eighties are releasing new material at longer and longer intervals. Five, seven, eight years…. and in the case of New York thrashers Anthrax – it has taken more than ten long years to see the successor of the excellent For All Kings. Still, for me it’s always a celebration to hear new music from veteran bands and I cannot accept legacy acts which only start performing old classics live, totally giving up creating new music.
Cursum Perficio then, is a reward to all of these fans (like myself), offering ten brand new tracks (plus a short intro) recorded by the same line-up which did the previous album. The band worked on the album in Dave Grohl’s Studio 606 in Los Angeles, which was produced together with Jay Ruston and sounds as angry and alive as their most celebrated fare, with a distinctive dark atmosphere prevalent in most of the tracks.
The Long Goodbye is excellent heavy metal with just hints of thrash and a fantastic lead melody, while first single It’s For The Kids bursts with energy and explodes in the latter half with a blistering guitar solo by Jonathan Donais. Then, in Everybody’s Got A Plan, we have a typical late-Eighties uplifting mid-tempo groove monster, before the epic centerpiece of the album The Edge Of Perfection absolutely obliterates all expectations and perceptions of what Anthrax are capable of. The song’s instrumental part is almost like a late-era Dimmu Borgir work, and were it not for the vocals of Belladonna, one could hardly associate it with Anthrax at all. A great, great song, showing the guys are not afraid to experiment bravely and deliver on all fronts.
Infectious then steps off from the pedal, decreasing the tempo but still winning with an excellent solo, while NYC 93 once again reminds me mostly of the State Of Euphoria era. This is the place to say some special words of praise towards Charlie Benante’s performance on this record, which is simply extraordinary. At 63 years young, this guy just steals the show in a masterclass of percussion playing. The title track is another dark epic, speeding up the tempo and giving Donais freedom to compliment Scott Ian’s riff-storm with another portion of nice melodic leads. There’s so much melody and imagination in this song, sounding really inspired and full of ideas. T.O.M.B. and Watch It Go are slower, yet still super heavy stompers, the latter again varied and versatile in structure, almost progressive in places, stop-start double bass and plenty of moments to start a violent mosh-pit to. My Victory ends an already excellent album being melodic heavy-speed metal anthem with one more catchy chorus to enter your head and hardly leave it for days.
Anthrax may have made us wait a decade for new music, but Cursum Perficio exceeds expectations and is their bravest and most inspired album since Sound Of White Noise. It’s a band confident with their legacy, looking into the future, showing all the youngsters how it’s done.
9/10
Cursum Perficio is out on September 18th and can be ordered from HERE
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