In a new interview with Talk Is Jericho, the podcast hosted by wrestling superstar and Fozzy frontman Chris Jericho, Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante discussed the band’s long-awaited 12th studio album, Cursum Perficio, which will be released Sept. 18 via Megaforce in the U.S. and Nuclear Blast in Europe. It is the band’s first record in 10 years since 2016’s For All Kings, which debuted in the Top 10 of the Billboard 200. The phrase “Cursum Perficio” is Latin for “My journey has come to an end” or “I complete my journey.”
Benante said (transcribed by Blabbermouth) about the response to lead single “It’s For The Kids”: “Well, for me, I’ve been waiting so long for this moment because I’ve lived with this song for so long. And I knew once people heard it… You know how it is, man. It’s like when you have a song, and you think it’s really good, but you can’t really… How do you know how good it is until people hear it, and then you get that feedback? And it’s so important, for me at least, to hear that feedback.”
On why “It’s For The Kids” was chosen as the first single, Benante explained: “The first song, we wanted to release something that really represents the band and shows that we’re not slowing down. We’re hitting as hard as we feel we are. So it was definitely a statement. Someone said this was a love letter to our fans, and when they said that to me, I was, like, ‘You’re right.’ That’s exactly what this is.”
On why it took a decade to follow up For All Kings, Benante said: “The honest answer I can give is, me personally, I didn’t have it to write. I didn’t feel it. It just wasn’t the right time. I was, like, ‘Well, I don’t have anything to say right now. I don’t think the band has anything to say.’ And then the whole pandemic happened, which we started to actually write before the pandemic, and then that happened, and then that set us back — what? — two years. But a lot of these songs on this record — there’s a song called ‘Target On My Back’ [‘T.O.M.B.’]; that’s from 2015. There’s a lot of stuff that was old that I had, and then there’s some new songs that I felt, ‘This is too good to hold back and wait. I want this out.’”
Benante described how the songwriting process evolved: “A song like ‘It’s For The Kids’ — I would do these demos and I would put them in a Dropbox, and then Scott [Ian, Anthrax guitarist] would listen to them… I would just do the demo and throw it in there. So all of a sudden, we started to get an abundance of these songs, and then we would get together — me, Scott, and Frankie [Bello, Anthrax bassist] — and kind of play them live. And it was such a great feeling to be back with them and just playing some new songs. If you’re in a band, you kind of know what that feels like. It’s almost like spring training. You’re getting together with the guys again, and you’re doing the thing that you love, but there’s this new vibe happening.”
Benante spoke movingly about the song “The Long Goodbye”: “For me, it’s a very personal and emotional song. It’s about Scott‘s dad, who had Alzheimer’s. And it’s called ‘The Long Goodbye,’ and that, to me, even when I talk about it, I think about his dad, ’cause I loved his dad. His dad was one of the greatest — just such a great person. And it makes me sad just to think about that whole thing that happened because it brings me back to my parents and stuff like that.”
Benante also described how the album title came to him: “I was watching this documentary on Marilyn Monroe, and in her home in L.A., in Beverly Hills, she had this tile, this plaque, and it said ‘Cursum Perficio.’ And when I was watching it and the narrator was saying what it was and what it meant, dude, a light just went off in my head. I’m, like, ‘That’s it. That’s the title right there.’”
On the album cover, Benante said: “I was looking for an artist who did… those old Harry Houdini posters, the way they looked, like a Coney Island type of art. I was watching this magician, David Blaine, doing a docuseries, and after every episode, there was a piece of art that would basically summarize the episode. And when I saw the art, I’m, like, ‘That’s it. That’s exactly the style that I want.’ So I went to the credits, and I found the artist’s name, and we contacted him… It’s a very strange kind of Salvador Dalí-esque type of piece of art. And there are a couple of Easter eggs in the art. I see fans trying to pick it out… but each character on the cover has a backstory too, which will come out later.”
Cursum Perficio was recorded at Dave Grohl‘s Studio 606 in Los Angeles during 2022 and produced by Jay Ruston and Anthrax. The album will be available in multiple limited formats, including standard CD, black double LP with pop-up gatefold, and various exclusive vinyl variants.
