After a full decade away from the studio, Anthrax are finally ready to unleash new music on the world. The thrash legends will drop their first single in ten years, “It’s for the Kids,” this Friday, May 15th, serving as the opening salvo from their upcoming twelfth studio album *Cursum Perficio*, which hits shelves September 18th via Megaforce in North America and Nuclear Blast in Europe *†‡. The new record—produced by Jay Ruston, who’s now worked with the band three times—was mixed and partially tracked at Dave Grohl’s Studio 606 in California, and drummer Charlie Benante teamed up with artist Mark Stutzman to design the album cover, wrapping that work in July 2025 *.
The album title itself carries serious weight: *Cursum Perficio* is Latin for “I will persevere” or “I am completing my journey”—not “my journey ends,” as some translations suggest—and Benante found the phrase engraved on a tile at Marilyn Monroe’s final home in Brentwood *‡. The record will pack 11 tracks with titles like “Persistence of Memory,” “The Long Goodbye,” “Everybody’s Got a Plan,” and “NYC 93,” and as of March, only eight people had heard the finished album *. The wait has been brutal but understandable: Anthrax wrapped touring for 2016’s *For All Kings* in November 2019, started writing late that year, then got slammed by the pandemic in 2020 before resuming work in 2021—meaning the actual creative time was closer to three years than ten *‡.
The band isn’t wasting any time getting back on the road, either. They’ll hit the UK and Europe later this month alongside Iron Maiden, then launch a massive North American tour with Iron Maiden and Megadeth starting in early September—perfect timing to support the new album †. For a band that formed in Queens back in 1981 and has racked up six Grammy nominations across 11 previous studio albums, *Cursum Perficio* feels less like an ending and more like a statement of perseverance from thrash metal royalty who refuse to fade away.