Cancer Christ is a Reptilian-Christian-Christ-Violence hardcore punk band that cleanses the damned in Los Angeles, California.
After living a life of sin and darkness vocalist, Anthony Mehlhaff, switched his life around to serve punk rock in the name of faith. They range from a many of definitions but the ultimate being how they “portray the imperfect vessel to wage a holy war against those who wish to profit from a dying prophet’s words.”
I got a chance to chat with Mehlhaff about the origins of Cancer Christ, his church, counterproductive ideologies of institutional religion, why traditional churches push people away from religion, the end of the world, and whole bunch more.
Set the scene for us, man. Who the hell are you and what do you stand for?
My name is Anthony Mehlhaff, some call me Saint Anthony and I’m a humble servant of God originally from Stockton, California but was called to crusade the filthy streets of Los Angeles. I stand for all the would-be scum that never considered Jesus an option.
For the millions of demon worshippers that think Satan is tough or sick or down. I stand to let all those bitches know that God bitch slapped Lucifer out of heaven and only then did that punk-bitch become Satan. God fucks the hardest and he’s ready to fuck the world, whether you believe or not.
I stand with my Snakeboys as warriors for the word and soldiers ready to rid this pathetic world of all those false prophets and profiteers. To wield the divine power of the brutalist of all brutal fucks! The creator and the destroyer of all things!
We shall ride through this land and leave only filth. Boiling piles of bloody-bone ash with our Lord and Savior, Jesus FUCKING CHRIST!
I feel the Holy spirit cumming over me. Oh yes, can I get an Amen!? Hallelujah! Praise Jesus! Satan is a bitch! Satan is God’s bitchaaa!
For the record, cops are Satanic. Literally created by Satan in the darkest ring of the vilest pit in hell.
[Laughs] Amen, brother! Woah. What a set up you gave us. What called you out to Los Angeles other than to dual wield crosses in the streets to rid the city of sin?
I too was a sinner. I loved all the carnal sins: drugs, alcohol, sex, murder, Satan, ska [Laughs]. That’s a little Christian joke. Ska was created by Satan - biblical truth.
Anyways, I was in a damp den of sin, high on drugs, leaking blood and cum with all sorts of people that sold their souls to the devil for a hit of meth. One day after stealing everything from my dying grandmothers house, pain in my heart and a needle in the head of my penis and I heard a voice. An angelic voice, “put the cock and the needle down.”
At first, I thought it was the beautiful, BBW tweaked stripper I spent all my EBT money on the night before. But when I looked around the room, Tina was blowing the brains outta some local can-collector. I went back to my needle full of milk and honey when again, “put that cock and needle down! NOW!”
I paused, put the needle down, and then jerked off to the live show taking place at my lap.
Ever since that day I’ve been hearing the voice of God in times of trial or tribulation. The voice of God saved me from death that day – Tina.
God rest her soul. After gobbling down the local transient, she took the needle to the neck, and it was almost all fentanyl. Tina was a fighter.
She was in a doctor induced coma for 7 months before the good Lord took her up to heaven where I know for a fact she kneels before the almighty power of CHRIST.
We’re all just a bunch of God damn sinners, Saint Anthony. Rest in peace to Tina though—a real trooper she sounds like especially gobbling that transient. At least you found your way towards righteousness in a life of sin. I catch myself in that same position while trying to find myself– minus needles and tweaked out BBW strippers.
So, we’ve heard your background, tell me about the holy defenders that is Cancer Christ. Introduce us to these blessed soldiers that help tackle wretched filth.
Drums:
Snakeboy
Samples:
Snakeboy
Bass:
Snakeboy
Guitar:
Snakeboy
Lead Guitar:
Snakeboy
Hype Snake:
Snakegirl
The Army is growing.
I love me a good origin story. How did y'all come together and spawn the dawn of Cancer Christ?
The Lords work takes some heavy lifting at times and major balancing skill. I was at Church—as I do every Sunday—and I began to get really fucking bored—as I do every Sunday at Church—and I began to snoop. I was looking for snacks or some of those good latex nun porn mags when I heard a faint shriek from deep inside the bellow of the church.
I followed the sound until I ended up in the basement. It was dank, dark, and hotter than hell. The shrieks were almost unbeatable. My heart was beating like a drum. I moved toward the sound. Flipped my phone light on and was shocked when I saw this creature: human body, snake head—he looked scared. He was also chained by his neck to the floor. As I moved closer, I noticed another Snakeboy, and another, and another.
I think they were as scared of me as I was of them. I searched around the church, found a sledgehammer, and broke them free. We fled out the back door and after many months of rehab and prayers. I was able to start to understand the Snakeboys, they were as loving as they were vicious with sexual appetites like teenage boys.
They ate all day, smelled foul, loved heavy metal, and '80s horror and action violence. I had to channel their endless need to fight, fuck, and kill. It turned out they all played music.
Wow. That was beautiful. I bet the Snakeboys are glad that you stumbled upon them in the churches deep, dark depths, taking them under your wing. In terms of faith, you obviously have a close personal relationship with God. You mentioned to me prior to our conversation of how you are trying to “expand the reach our church.”
Tell me about that. What are some of the driving motives and characteristics that define this church?
The Church is driven by the word of God. We are excited for this world to end and for the new one to begin. Endless blood, rivers, oceans, even of the blood of the non-believers. Especially the false prophets and prosperity preachers. Watching them melt as we ride with JESUS is gonna be hard for me not to be hard.
False prophets tend to be the ones always leading the masses it seems. It reminds me of your lyrics in "Prosperity Preacher" where you say "why should I give you all my money? Don't you have enough?” Nodding at the notion of how traditional church often promotes the wrong ideologies that they’re supposed to uphold.
What is something about institutional religion that you find counterproductive?
Where to begin? They preach from towers made of ivory and silk and their most devout praise from the slums surrounded by rats and needles. Milk and honey for them, piss and shit for us. They pay zero taxes. Tax the fuck out of the church and the scum will ooze out of the church real fast.
Pedophiles run rampant in the Catholic church. Infant murderers bury children in their gardens. Church members ask what the homeless person is going to do with the dollar bill they might get but give no fucks what 1/10th their cash actually goes to.
There seems to always be worse rather than good going on behind the scenes of church. I grew up in a church and found myself focusing on my own personal faith in my later years rather going to a systemic place to worship because of the constant hypocrisy. Why do you think traditional church tends to steer people away from religion?
Youth is getting hip to the shit. They can smell the brimstone -sulfur. All these churches formed on hate, fear, greed, and death have some of it right. First, you must fear but one being and that is God. His grace is brutal as fuck and wants his creation to end. They designed it that way. Second, death is also a pillar of all this shit. Everyone has to die and then we can sort out the hordes off to The City of Dis and those that get eternal life like myself and our army.
What they forget is the love and that Jesus died for your sins. That shits paid for in full with blood. So, go out and fucking sin or what did the dude fucking get tortured for? I’m talking with God about this shit all the time and honestly, he’s always changing his mind. This idea that all sins are created equal is bullshit too.
And no pedophiles, serial killers, cops, rapists. racists, bigots, or murders in the name of country get in. His rules, not mine. The Kingdom of heaven doesn’t need that bullshit vibe.
That’s a cool perspective to look at it: “go out and fucking sin or what did the dude fucking get tortured for?” I never thought of it like that. It’s obvious that you have a tight relationship with God as well as music. Would you say that faith got you into this relationship you have with the music or was there a different connection?
It’s 100 a calling to arms from Jesus fucking Christ!
Looks like you're doing the almighty lords work by delivering your heavenly messages through means of punk rock. What made you all pick the name Cancer Christ for the band?
We addressed a problem, a cancer, mankind and provided an answer to that cancer, Christ. God wants this world to be inhabitable again when he figures out a solution to its major flaws and mankind’s major flaws. People confuse fire being that it’s made by the devil, God makes fire, that’s where he stuck that bitch Lucifer after he dropped his evil ass out of heaven and Lucifer tried a name change to help his own ego—Satan.
What a bitch name if ya ask me. Satan works in fire but works with rot. He has been trying to rot the world from the inside out with corporations, big lobby firms, politicians, judges, cops, bigots, racists, and homophobes.
The rot, the cancer was happening underground and has finally reared its ugly, weak, face and has gotten completely out of control. The solution? GOD’s light. God’s fire. God’s wrath. It’s then, his faithful soldiers will help re-create this world anew.
I dig it, man. That's quite profound if you ask me. Fuck Satan! Sadly, it feels like things are only getting worse and our reckoning is coming sooner than later. Has God told you he's coming back soon to save the world from damnation, or do we still have some time to reconcile our wicked ways before Judgement Day?
Jesus doesn’t like to give exact dates and as far as saving mankind that’s not gonna happen. Jesus will rain down hellfire from the heavens. There will be a mass extinction. There will be blood. There will be pain. There will be smoldering human ash fluttering through the air boiled human bone will cover the ground.
Jesus is also a trip, man. He has a sick sense of humor. He likes to give people challenges that he knows they cannot overcome. He likes to see people fail. He also likes to see people succeed but mankind is almost like God’s reality show the more drama the better.
Most of the stuff written about Jesus is completely off-base. Jesus likes sex, he likes to fuck, he likes to fornicate, he likes to fight, he likes to drink, he likes to take psychotropics. He invented all that shit. It was God’s people who think that Satan invented all the evil things. No, God did and when he gave free will to man, he knew shit was going to get a little fucking hairy.
I totally agree that Jesus was just as much of a sinner as we are. JC was balls deep in women, man. No doubt. Guzzling wine with the nomads, being a normal person. It’s crazy that people don’t think Jesus was as much as a sinner as the next man and that he was “perfect.” He laughs down on all of us thinking, “what fucking idiots.”
Would you classify your style as Christian hardcore punk?
We are Reptilian Christ-Violence.
[Laughs] I fuck with that. You're creating a new sub-genre with that one. What sparked the thought to create a Christian punk band compared to any other genre?
There was never really a choice. Christian music is weak as fuck. Christians are weak as fuck in heart, body, mind and soul. We want to honor Christ and show him how brutal man and serpent can be.
What better way than spreading the gospel through heavy music? God fucks the hardest, and soon the world will know that because he’s gonna fuck us all. Either you cum with Jesus or he comes for you. Creator of worlds, destroyer of worlds, fucker of all mankind!
Jesus Christfucker of worlds!
It’s all part of God’s plan for you, my man—creating the heaviest music possible for saints and sinners alike. Cancer Christ’s music reflects that brutal duality of man and serpent and how they go together at times. In terms of music, what does Cancer Christ have in the works?
Amen brother and hallelujah! God is good. God is brutal but most importantly God is gonna cut us all down! Only question is: who’s gonna be resurrected in the kingdom of mother fucking heaven!? Me. the Snakeboys. the Snakegirls, and all non-conforming Snake-people know where the fuck we stand, do you?!
Cancer Christ has a 7-inch split with the good Christian boys of Wacko on vinyl via Sweatband Records coming out sometime next year. Also, we are bringing the holy gospel to the studio in February for our debut album and most likely an EP and another split! God speaks thru us, a lot!
We also have a mini tour 12/9-12/12:
November 26 -
Los Angeles, CA @ Non Plus Ultraw/ Wacko, Body Farm, Self Sabotage, Death Gang
December 9 - San Diego, CA @ Brick by Brick w/ Exhorder, Take Offense, Body Farm
December 11 - Fresno, CA @ Strummers w/ The Locust & Prissy Whip
We intent to open The Holy Church of Cancer Christ in 2023 and break ground in 2022. Follow the smoke and sure enough there will be the almighty fire of God and Cancer Christ along with The Serpents of Jesus. The Snakeboys will surely be there. Praise his mercy, praise his brutal power, and praise this soon to be over—great and tragic existence! In his name we pray, A-fucking-men!
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Pre-order link for Cancer Chris x Wacko split 7-inch.
Cancer Christ on social media: Instagram
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