Anthrax Scores First Top Hard Rock Albums No. 1 in 10 Years
Billboard ·
Cursum Perficio follows For All Kings as rulers for the veteran rock act.
Anthrax ’s second No. 1 on Billboard ’s Top Hard Rock Albums chart is its first new LP in 10 years, Cursum Perficio , which bows atop the ranking dated Oct. 3.
In the week ending Sept. 24, Cursum Perficio , Anthrax’s 12th studio album, earned 22,000 equivalent album units in the United States, according to Luminate. That sum includes 21,000 copies in album sales, leading to a bow of No. 4 on the Top Album Sales survey, and with 8,000 in vinyl sales, the set begins at No. 7 on Vinyl Albums .
Anthrax last led Top Hard Rock Albums, which began in 2007, with For All Kings , Cursum Perficio ’s predecessor, in 2016.
That 10-year gap between No. 1s is the longest on Top Hard Rock Albums since 3 Doors Down ended a 14-year break from the top spot with The Greatest Hits in February after the death of frontman Brad Arnold.
As for acts doing so with newly released albums, Anthrax’s 10-year wait is the lengthiest since Aerosmith ’s 2023 Greatest Hits package reigned that year 10 years and 10 months since the lead of 2012’s Music From Another Dimension! .
Cursum Perficio also starts at No. 27 on the all-genre Billboard 200, Anthrax’s seventh top 40. Among those are two top 10s in 1993’s Sound of White Noise and the aforementioned For All Kings ; the former’s No. 7 peak remains the band’s best.
In all, 14 Anthrax releases have appeared on the Billboard 200, dating to the rockers’ sophomore release, Spreading the Disease , in 1985.