Anthrax Scores First Top Hard Rock Albums No. 1 in 10 Years

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.

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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.