Album review: Maruja – Pain To Power

The excitement around Maruja has been building, finally exploding right now with this exceptional debut full-length. Having existed in some form since college, the Manchester quartet have arrived at a vision quite distinct from anyone else making music in 2025. Their creative process, both in the rehearsal room and onstage, is fuelled by free-flowing improvisation, with Joe Carroll’s saxophone leading them into unique territory between jazz, punk and noise rock. Consequently, Pain To Power shifts between calm, reflective passages and snarling bursts of energy, not in a hackneyed quiet-loud manner but as an instinctive expression of the band’s many layers.

Incredible lead single Look Down On Us is just one of three tunes here that capture Maruja’s free-flowing approach by stretching out to the 10-minute mark. Album centrepiece Born To Die opens with frontman Harry Wilkinson’s spoken word vocals atop glistening guitars and plaintive sax, its elegiac tone slowly gaining in intensity until the dam breaks and a thunderous drum roll ushers in heavy, staccato funk; closer Reconcile finds them at their most graceful and immersive. However, their sonics loss no potency when condensed into conventional durations, as proven by ferocious cuts Bloodsport and Trenches, all hip-hop inflections and intelligent fury.

This latter quality is reflected by lyrics that dig deeper and say more than standard-practice sloganeering. Whether dealing with oppression, mental health or war, Harry’s words emphasise empathy, solidarity and spirituality; on Saoirse, one of Pain To Power’s most reflective pieces, he sings, ‘It’s our differences that make us beautiful.’ It’s a sentiment at odds with prevailing sentiments in the world right now, with deportations, nationalism and genocide continuing unchecked – and proof that in both music and message, this is surely one of the year’s most important records.

Verdict: 5/5

For fans of: Swans, IDLES, Rage Against The Machine

Pain To Power is released on September 12 via Music For Nations