Anthrax Shut Down Retirement Talk: ‘Why Close It?’

If Anthrax were planning a farewell, Scott Ian says they wouldn’t be keeping it quiet.

The guitarist and drummer Charlie Benante have addressed speculation around the band’s future following the release of Cursum Perficio, Anthrax’s first studio album in a decade.

Speaking on SiriusXM’s Trunk Nation With Eddie Trunk on September 28th, Ian dismissed the idea that a retirement announcement was looming (per Lamb Goat).

“If that was the plan, we would play that card, like so many other bands have,” Ian said.

Benante was even more direct about the difficulty of simply walking away from something the band have spent more than four decades building.

“How do you stop? How many years have we put into this already? 40-something years,” Benante said. “So you built the store. Why close it?”

Ian also touched on the familiar pattern of bands announcing farewell tours only to eventually return, noting that artists are often told they are “leaving a lot of money on the table.”

Importantly, he made clear he wasn’t talking about Anthrax, because the band have never said they are retiring.

Anthrax ‘Cursum Perficio’

My Journey Has Come To An End

The questions aren’t completely surprising. Cursum Perficio can be translated from Latin as “my journey has come to an end”, and the band have acknowledged that the record could conceivably turn out to be their final full-length.

That possibility, though, is a long way from an actual farewell announcement.

When BLUNT caught up with Ian ahead of Anthrax’s Australian tour in March, there wasn’t much sense of a band preparing to wind things down either. The conversation bounced from their history and thrash legacy to touring, television and where Anthrax still fitted in 2026.

Six months later, the answer appears much the same.

Cursum Perficio arrived on September 18th, ten years after 2016’s For All Kings. Anthrax have also released a black-and-white video for its title track, directed by Don Argott and starring Samhain’s London May.

Whether another Anthrax full-length follows remains an open question and whether Anthrax themselves are finished is another matter entirely, Ian and Benante certainly aren’t talking like they are.