Anthrax Unleashes “It’s For the Kids” as Heavy Song of the Week

Heavy Song of the Week is a feature on Heavy Consequence breaking down the top metal, punk, and hard rock tracks you need to hear every Friday. This week, we highlight the new single “It’s For the Kids” from Anthrax.

Anthrax are curious among the Big Four of thrash, also comprised of Metallica, Megadeth and Slayer. Not only are they the only East Coast member, but they also had a more complex interior image, jocular but not quite jokey, tough but not quite evil, sharp but not quite technical. They had lo-fi punky work like A Fistful of Metal , progressive and cerebral work like Persistence of Time , and post-Pantera groove like Sound of White Noise . Similarly, while the precise politics of other three groups has become murky over time, Anthrax has stayed consistent throughout their history.

Which makes their first new song in 10 years, “It’s For the Kids,” as exciting as it is. On its surface, it’s a straight-ahead thrasher, a lean and mean track that would do well to punch up the energy of the crowd partway through a set. But knowing the history of the group, it’s this exciting nugget, blending the harsh grooves of the John Bush era with the melodic shredding solos of their more recent releases set against strident lyrics reminiscent of their earliest work.

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Honorable Mentions

Ara – “Auflakt”

Ara offer an intriguing mixture of raw black metal and cavernous, dubby post-punk on “Auflakt,” the opening track from their new album Hohe Tannen . The Austrian group, not to be confused with the defunct death metal band of the same name, sound often like contemporary arthouse post-punk like Disappears or Facs moreso than Darkthrone or Mayhem, at least compositionally. The only immediate tells toward black metal are the particular ugliness of the guitar tone, brilliantly so, and then those snarling animalistic vocals, absent here on the instrumental opener. “Auflakt” shows how progressive musicality can be boiled down to emotive and vast music contained in mere minutes, how ragged directness and expansive scope do not have to be opposites.

Liminal – “The Crop”

This new Australian psych group has dropped an incredible new single. Like their countrymen King Gizzard, they blend a heady prog-drenched approached to psychedelia, reminiscent of the more imagistic and bass-driven moments of Yes. But there is also enough scuzzy rock energy here that it wouldn’t be hard to imagine them opening for groups like Mastodon or Yob somewhere down the line either. It’s groups like this that show why we have generally moved toward calling it simply heavy music; it’s less about whether it’s punk or metal and more about a certain heft , something you know instantly when you feel it and by the stank face it induces in you as it plays. The future is bright for this group.

Primus – “The Ol’ Grizz”

Primus have remained a critical riddle for their entire duration and “The Ol’ Grizz” wonderfully refuses to make that task any easier. Is it funk metal? Well, not with that grimy country-folk darkness all over it. Are those zydeco vocals from Les Claypool? And what in the world is Larry LaLonde — who we must always remember is a founding member of death metal pioneers Possession — doing with his guitar now? And while the drummer John Hoffman is new, the only constancy is the drum-work that splits the different between Neil Peart precision, Danny Carey expressionist prog, and Jon Fishman elasticity. Oh, and they have a full-bore psych-prog bridge this time, because of course they do. May this wonderful riddle never be solved. And on that note, check out their shockingly respectful new cover of “Holy Diver.”

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_Originally reported by [Consequence](https://consequence.net/2026/05/heavy-song-of-the-week-anthrax-its-for-the-kids/)._