ANTHRAX's CHARLIE BENANTE On 'It's For The Kids' Single: 'We Wanted To Release Something That Shows We're Not Slowing Down'

In a new interview with Talk Is Jericho, the podcast hosted by wrestling superstar and FOZZY frontman Chris Jericho, ANTHRAX drummer Charlie Benante spoke about the band's long-awaited twelfth full-length studio album, "Cursum Perficio", which will be released on September 18 via Megaforce in the U.S. and Nuclear Blast in Europe. It marks the band's first record in ten 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," "My journey is over," or "I complete my journey."

Asked about the response to the first single from the upcoming LP, "It's For The Kids", which was made available earlier in the month, Charlie said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET): "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.

"The first song, we wanted to release something that really represents the band and shows that we're not slowing down," Charlie explained. "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 the topic of why it took a decade for ANTHRAX to release the follow-up to "For All Kings", Charlie, who writes the majority of the band's music, 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 continued: "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, and then he'd write me. He's, like, 'I didn't even know about this song.' And I'm, like, 'Oh yeah.' 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 yet there's this new vibe happening. There's these new songs that are being created. Man, it's just a great feeling. And it took a while, but I guess it had to take a while."

Charlie added: "I even know Scott at some point was having a little bit of a writer's block, too, as far as the lyrics goes, because Scott writes the lyrics for the band. And Scott's such a great lyricist. His lyrics, to me — we'll talk about things, and we talk about certain aspects of life or whatever, and sometimes we'll just be talking, and he'll use that in a lyric. Like 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. But 'The Long Goodbye' was one of those songs that, for me, the music was very emotional, and I remember Scott saying, 'Dude, that melody in there is one of the best ones that we ever had.' Same with 'The Edge Of Perfection'. Scott thought that was the best ever. And the funny thing about that song, 'The Edge Of Perfection', is every time I do a demo, man, I do, like, an eight-minute demo, but the reason why I do that is because I like to put a different variation of the riff. If I'm doing, like, a minute and a half of the riff, well, then maybe at five minutes, the riff changes a little bit, because I want everybody to hear it as, like, 'Well, we can do that part first and then bring...' You know, just arrange it differently. And Scott and Frank are really good with arranging the song."

Charlie also talked about the inspiration for the "Cursum Perficio", album title, saying: "I'd been looking for a title for this record that pretty much summarized where we were and where I was at this point. And I'm not saying this is the last album, but the album title translates to 'my journey has come to an end', 'my journey is over'.

"Two times this happened to me, and it was very strange, the way some things come to me without me even knowing it," he continued. "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.' So when I brought it to the guys, they thought it was strange too, and they liked it. But everybody liked it. And that's the one thing — if everybody likes it, that means it's right. So we went with that title. And then the artwork for the cover, I was looking for an artist who did... I don't know if you remember those old Harry Houdini posters, the way they looked, like a Coney Island type of art. It just had this look and this vibe to it. And I was watching this magician, David Blaine. He was doing this docuseries, and it was, like, a six-part series, 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, and he was, like, 'Yes, I would love to do this cover for you guys.' And I worked with him about it. And it's a very strange kind of Salvador Dalí-esque type of piece of art. And there's a a couple of Easter eggs in the art. I see fans trying to pick it out, 'Oh, here's something from this album', 'Here's something from that album,' which I love that they're doing that. But each character on the cover has a backstory too, which will come out later."

"Cursum Perficio" will be available as a standard CD; Target-exclusive CD with a fabric patch of the album cover; standard black double LP with pop-up gatefold; Target-exclusive double LP, red zoetrope with pop-up gatefold; Amazon-exclusive double LP, purple zoetrope LP with pop-up gatefold; merch-exclusive lilac vinyl double LP with pop-up gatefold; Metal Injection-exclusive white vinyl double LP with pop-up gatefold; Talk Shop Live-exclusive signed with red ripple vinyl double LP with pop-up gatefold; Indie-exclusive red, orange yellow vinyl double LP with pop-up gatefold.

The band dove into recording "Cursum Perficio" in earnest during 2022, working out of Dave Grohl's Studio 606 in Los Angeles. They carefully pieced together what would be this magnum opus, mining their history with reverence, delivering on fan expectations tenfold, and broadening the scope of their signature sound. Produced by Jay Ruston and ANTHRAX, the result is an album that's as angry, aggressive, and alive as their most celebrated fare.

ANTHRAX celebrated its 40th anniversary in 2021 with a number of special activities and events. Formed by Ian and bassist Dan Lilker in Queens, New York on July 18, 1981, ANTHRAX was one of the first thrash metal bands to emerge from the East Coast and quickly became regarded as a leader in the genre alongside METALLICA, SLAYER and MEGADETH.

Active over the past five decades, ANTHRAX has released 11 studio albums, been awarded multiple gold and platinum certifications, received six Grammy nominations, toured the world since 1984 playing thousands of shows, including headlining Madison Square Garden and playing Yankee Stadium with the "Big Four".

"For All Kings" was called by some critics ANTHRAX's strongest album to date. Its arrival followed a five-year period during which the group experienced a rebirth of sorts, beginning with ANTHRAX's inclusion on the "Big Four" tour, and continuing with the release of comeback LP "Worship Music".