Maruja Announce Debut Album Pain to Power

UK post-rock outfit Maruja have shared the news that many of us have been waiting for: Their debut album is coming this year. Pain to Power will arrive September 12 via Music For Nations, and it was produced by Samuel W Jones, whom the band tapped for their first three EPs. In 2024, we named Maruja’s Connla’s Well EP as one of the best of the year. “Connla’s Well is post-rock done right, calling to mind the space-age, krauty blends of a band like Popol Vuh, the slashing, post-punk renderings of Gang of Four, and the jazzy textures of Godspeed You! Black Emperor before descending into a firestorm of post-hardcore and blown-out punk frequencies,” I wrote in December. “Rather than pack a wallop, the EP feasts on your energy slowly, as the songs careen through fits of saxophone atmospheres, thudding drums, and dynamic, unsettling, incongruent guitars.”

In March, Maruja took the stage at Paste‘s East Austin Block Party and turned their instruments up so loud that businesses at the end of the street could hear them wail. It was a transcendent 30 minutes, packed with mosh pits, rupturing stage antics, and a crowd-parting chaos our stage could barely contain. And the performance was so heavy, brought to life by men in board shorts and tennis shoes. Looking back on how those three days of music went, none of the sets have stuck with me like Maruja’s. I’m so thrilled they’re with us.