Anthrax drummer Charlie Benante has opened up about the decade-long gap between the band’s albums, in a new interview published by This Day in Metal.
Benante addressed why it took the band 10 years to follow up their 2016 record For All Kings with their twelfth full-length studio album, Cursum Perficio, set for release on September 18.
“I know everybody says, ‘Why 10 years?'” Benante said. “I almost said ‘seven years’, because I don’t count the pandemic. It just took that long because I really didn’t have anything inside, me personally, I didn’t have anything to say.”
Benante went on to explain that the extended timeline ultimately shaped the creative direction of the new record.
“I wasn’t interested in making new music at that point,” he continued. “I wanted to have something that really expressed where we are, and all that time just created different things — took from this, took from that, and it’s a culmination of all those years, and that’s what this record basically represents, all those years of different things coming inside.”
The wait, however, appears to have been well worth it. The album’s scope reflects just how much ground the band covered during those years away.
As Blabbermouth reported, Cursum Perficio will be released on September 18 via Megaforce. Benante described the record as pulling from “different eras, different moods, different ideas” across the band’s history. The album also includes older material Benante had been sitting on for years. One track — “Target on My Back” — dates all the way back to 2015.
The band has already released the lead single “It’s For The Kids.” Benante was clear about the message behind choosing it as the album’s introduction. Sonic Perspectives noted that Benante said the band chose the track because they wanted to show they were “not slowing down.” He framed the release as a statement of momentum rather than a comeback.
“We wanted to release something that shows we’re not slowing down,” Benante stated, reinforcing that Cursum Perficio is not simply a return, but a forward-looking statement from a band that still has plenty to say.
Cursum Perficio is scheduled for release on September 18 via Megaforce.
