Formerly of the Bay Area, Torso is one of those hardcore bands that embodies perfectly the sense of ambient anxiety that persists today. A low-hanging fog of doubt and acified uncertainty that withers flesh and cracks the mind's defenses. A lot of the anxiety expre4ssed through their sound is the product of systemic plundering by the ownership classes over the past decades which has caused a consistent reassessment of the security and independence one can expect as they age, enter the workforce, and then age out or become disabled (which is usually the same thing). Torso reminded me of a rust belt band in this way, and it always surprised me that they weren't from Detriot or Philadelphia. The other social malady that Torso seems concerned with is psychological, or rather the way that people offload their mental necrosis onto others- whether this comes in the form of narcissistic projections through social media, or the way that some people can cause entire communities to collapse into infighting and toxicity as a way of protecting and preserving their own egos from being challenged by outsiders, or even by any of their so-called friends. Almost all of these buttons are pressed on the opener and self-titled track of their EP Community Psychosis, a galloping, crashing screed against superficiality and the army of defensive pricks that make up most punk scenes (and the majority of opinion havers on Twitter). Vocalist Mae sounds absolutely wicked on the whirl of angst and shattered expectations that is "Waste of Time," and every groove on "Progress" sounds like another nail in a coffin you've been sealed in, lyrically depicting a world dislocated from its own future and sense of purpose. The EP closes out with the guttural and incendiary "Running on Empty" which has a fizzling, fuse-like quality to it, and sounds like the fast-burning preamble to a full-on, psychotic collapse. Community Psychosis might have come out over half a decade ago, and it still feels vital as fuck.
