By Martin Bradesca, Contributor

[Music for Nations; 2025]

Rating: 7/10

Key Tracks: “Bloodsport,” “Saoirse,” “Reconcile”

English rock band Maruja have been playing together in one form or another since 2014, but it was not until after 2019 that they cemented their current lineup and shifted focus away from their previous work. The band has released six EPs in total, with three in their current lineup. This year has seen the release of their very first full-length album, Pain to Power. 

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The band wastes no time introducing us to their dark world on Pain to Power. The opening track “Bloodsport” unleashes a deep emotional onslaught of thundering drums and bass seemingly before the play button is hit. Knocked to your knees, you must now contend with the weight of the emotions frontman Harry Wilkinson hurtles forth. 

“Look Down on Us” continues the assault, but this time reminds the listener just how much beauty is bursting from the seams of Maruja’s agony. The ten-minute monster of a track contends with isolation, hatred, love and the misuse of power. “When it’s money over mind, there will never be a truce” is shouted during the first few minutes of the track. After a melancholic and haunting bass passage, a second wave of the track begins, which insists we remain hopeful in spite of all the agony previously described. Wilkinson declares, “Turn pain to power, put faith in love.”

“Saoirse” is a slow-burn ballad led by an arpeggiating bass line that manages to hold the listeners attention after the previous ten-minute track. A lightly squawking saxophone that usually screeches on many of the other tracks on the album lays a faint halo of chaos on the otherwise purely beautiful track. 

If you were worried that the rest of the album would remain calm and beautiful, “Break the Tension” certainly breaks that expectation. Swirling tentacles of noise curve around a distorted bass, pounding drums, screeching sax and Wilkinson insisting that he “can’t break the tension.”

Overall, the album is marked by cutting critiques of modern society hurled above a sonic bath, whether it be throttling drums, or all-encompassing guitar and sax ambience. While Maruja started out with hefty comparisons to their fellow Windmill scene bands in Brixton, with this debut project they have firmly cemented themselves as a creative entity all on their own.