ANTHRAX always seemed to be the black sheep Big Four family. Metallica were the superstars, Megadeth the wild child. Slayer the tough nut everybody emulated. Anthrax were too oddball, goofing it up with rappers and wearing shorts on stage. People continue to argue they should never have been a member of this elite club Kerrang’s Don Kaye had put them in – “Anthrax aren’t thrash!” “It should be Testament/Exodus/anyone else!”
Yet they persisted. Endured, even as things got weird. Then at the beginning of the previous decade, Anthrax got their mojo back.
It’s been ten years since their last album, but that mojo is not only still there – it’s ablaze. Cursum Perficio is a seriously good metal record.
If there were major faults with the last two albums, it was the sterile production and how similar they were to each other. The over-reliance on big stomping groove tended to wear out its welcome toward the back of both Worship Music and For All Kings, and to be fair both perhaps stuck around just a little too long.
The songs here aren’t necessarily shorter, but they are fewer and bring back some of the band’s early thrash flavour. This line-up is, with the exception of Jon Donais, the same band that produced Among the Living – the bees’ knees of Anthrax albums – and has now been together since 2010.
Scott Ian is one of the greatest all-time rhythm guitarists, and with Charlie Benante and Frank Bello locking in around him, the chemistry is formidable. Every track leaps straight for the throat with a vibrancy their Big Four club members have lacked since Jeff Hanneman was alive. Joey Belladonna is singing better than he ever did. Jay Ruston’s production is much livelier. Bello sounds huge on this and the guitars have a crunch they lacked on the last two albums.
Speaking of guitars, Donais is off the chain.
Suggesting he’s a breath of fresh air is simply churlish after 13 years with the band, but his aggressive and visceral lead playing adds a sonic dimension to every song. His solo in “It’s For the Kids” is one of the most ferocious on any Anthrax album.
With their club fellows’ previous efforts falling short, tedious, patchy or a combination of all three, Cursum Perficio brings Anthrax to the end of this current journey with alacrity and flair. Bring the noise indeed.
