Every Ten needs one track that makes your speakers nervous. This week’s is a full EP. Public Acid — the Richmond-via-Raleigh hardcore outfit — released Pay No More on October 20 via Beach Impediment Records: six tracks, 11 minutes, no breathing room. Stereogum called it “deranged,” which in hardcore criticism is a five-star review.

The details are all correct for the genre: “Intro / Unfortunate Son,” “Country’s Blood,” “Ugly Truths,” “Tragic Relief,” “Blind Death,” and the title track. The label’s description — written by the band’s own Matt Martin, who also did the 7” layout — is worth quoting in full: “Arriving as a violent resurgence following 2024’s DEADLY STRUGGLE, Public Acid’s new EP fully sends six doses of seething yet expertly executed extreme music… deeper exploration of their terrifying twin guitar metallic torment, while still retaining the thoroughly pummeling brutality of hardcore punk. Owing as much influence to a pack of pimple-faced Raleigh teenagers circa 1982 as they do to the crushing sounds of Scandinavian jawbreakers and Japanese winds of pain.” Recorded and mixed by Trish at Studio North in Philadelphia, vocals by Jon K. at SANS in Richmond, mastered by Arthur Rizk, artwork by Thomas Sara — Discharge-style pocket sleeve, 150 copies on Carolina blue vinyl.

The context: their 2024 LP Deadly Struggle was one of Stereogum’s favorite hardcore albums of that year, and the band has been at it for nearly a decade — “a rare feat in this world,” as the label notes. Some of these tracks did the rounds this summer on the Operation Hardcore tour with Invertebrates (who share members and released their own Accosted EP the same day on the same label). The road from those guerrilla Richmond hardcore shows to now has been long and loud.

This site has precedent for going heavy — Calva Louise held a Ten slot just last week — and Pay No More earns it the same way: originality, conviction, and absolute commitment to the bit. The question the EP asks — “at what point do we decide to PAY NO MORE?” — is rhetorical. The answer is the volume knob.

RATING: 4.5/5

LISTEN

https://beachimpedimentrecords.bandcamp.com/album/pay-no-more