ANTHRAX brought in acclaimed U.K.-based session drummer Darby Todd for their concert on Saturday night (May 23) at the Olympic Athletic Center of Athens (OAKA) in Athens, Greece, where they appeared as the support act for IRON MAIDEN.
The lineup change came as longtime ANTHRAX drummer Charlie Benante was unable to make the Athens date due to his commitments with PANTERA, who are scheduled to perform in Frankfurt, Germany on Sunday, May 24 as the support act for METALLICA.
In addition to touring globally with Devin Townsend, Todd has performed with THE DARKNESS, Martin Barre, Alan Price, Gary Moore, Kee Marcello (EUROPE), Joe Lynn Turner (RAINBOW), Carl Verheyen, Robert Plant, Robben Ford, Paul Gilbert, and many others. Known for his versatility, he is equally comfortable performing in intimate jazz settings as he is on large arena stages.
The Athens appearance comes during a busy period for ANTHRAX, who recently kicked off a new chapter with the release of their latest single, “It’s For The Kids,” accompanied by an official music video.
The track marks the first preview of the band’s upcoming studio album Cursum Perficio, scheduled for release on September 18 in North America via Megaforce and in Europe through Nuclear Blast. The video for “It’s For The Kids” was filmed late last year, with the band completing the shoot in December while preparations for the album rollout continued behind the scenes.
Cursum Perficio will mark ANTHRAX’s first full-length release since 2016’s For All Kings. The band once again worked with producer Jay Ruston, who also handled For All Kings and Worship Music, with portions of the recording and mixing sessions taking place at Dave Grohl’s Studio 606 in Northridge, California.
The album title itself carries a layered meaning. Cursum Perficio is a Latin phrase famously found inscribed at the home of Marilyn Monroe in Los Angeles. While it is often interpreted as “My journey ends,” the phrase more accurately translates to “I will persevere” or “I am completing my journey.”
Speaking in a previous interview with BraveWords, guitarist Scott Ian and drummer Charlie Benante discussed the meaning behind the album’s title with some humor. Ian joked: “You’re asking the wrong people. Neither of us majored in Latin or went to medical school.”
Benante then revealed the deeper inspiration behind Cursum Perficio, which was sparked by an unexpected source: “There was a whole idea going around about, all the four bands, the Big 4 bands, kind of getting to the point where, ‘Wow, this may be the time that this could be the last record’. And I was watching this Marilyn Monroe documentary. She has this plaque in her house, which said, ‘Cursum Perficio’ which means ‘My journey has come to an end’ or ‘My journey is over’. And we were talking, and ‘What about this?’. We don’t really have to say that this is the end.”
Ian added that the title also reflects the band’s own journey in bringing the album to life: “I look at it as, it’s also the journey of this album.”
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