CANCER CHRIST

Heavy music and religion have never been the easiest bedfellows, but CANCER CHRIST have the fervent belief of champions. "God Is Violence" is a manifesto, drawn up on behalf of the band's steadily expanding church of disciples, performed with slightly unnerving, evangelical zeal. Expect boisterous chants of "Hail Christ!" at every turn, short, sharp bursts of explosive, industrial power violence and the pivotal conceit that these Californian miscreants have been beamed down from Heaven, on a mission to give politicians, pederasts and policemen a figurative and possibly also literal kicking. CANCER CHRIST's videos also seem to indicate the regular use of a flamethrower. Finally, you are almost certainly thinking, a religion we can all get behind.

If the above failed to make it clear: "God Is Violence" is fucking nuts. The product of crazed but ingenious minds, these songs are too fast and brutal to be authentically theatrical, but there is a strong sense that CANCER CHRIST are constructing more than just a deafening noise with knucklehead-baiting lyrics. As their strict policy of welcoming all freaks, outcasts and beleaguered minorities to the party suggests, frontman Saint Anthony and his comrades The Snake People are militant supporters of the underdog and enemies of authority. Despite being relentlessly silly, "God Is Violence" is also genuinely exciting, with a spiky spirit redolent of MINISTRY, BUTTHOLE SURFERS and the best of ALTERNATIVE TENTACLES RECORDS' late '80s/early '90s roster. It has become virtually impossible to be subversive in these jaded, desensitized times, but CANCER CHRIST are so wildly entertaining that it is easy to forget just how much through-the-looking-glass blasphemy is being spewed out across these 20 jaw-shattering tracks.

Kicking off with a heartfelt cry of "Do you wanna go to heaven, you dirty piece of shit?", "God is Violence" is ugly, abrasive and totally wired. "Baptized in Piss and Shit" whizzes by like a digital, thrash-fueled DEAD KENNEDYS with a MR. BUNGLE fixation. "God Hates Cops" spreads some self-evident wisdom over rabid hardcore punk, glitchy sci-fi grind and howling police sirens. "Bring Back the Guillotine" is hostile, robot thrash with a heart-warming message of vengeful violence. "Jesus Got a Big Ol' Cock" is a lurching, machine-punk nightmare, like a devil-worshipping DEVO overseen by Al Jourgensen. And so it goes on: brutal, unhinged, freak flag flying high, enlightenment only ever a flamethrower blast away.

CANCER CHRIST are out of their big, belligerent minds, and we are all invited to reap the rewards and dance around the flamethrower like the liberated motherfuckers we aspire to be. Or we might all be condemned to eternal hellfire, which seems a risk well worth taking, if you ask me. Hail Christ!