NEWS RELEASE
Montreal, QC – October 2, 2026
Avant-Garde Cinematic Doom LIMINAL SPIRIT Announces New Album “Forfeiture Hymns” Out Nov 2026
Streaming First Single “The Initiate”
Milwaukee’s one-man cinematic doom metal project Liminal Spirit will release its highly anticipated new full-length album, “Forfeiture Hymns,” on November 6th, 2026, unveiling the next chapter in the project’s ever-expanding conceptual mythology.
The project is the work of multi-instrumentalist Jerry Hauppa (Northless, Ara, Acanthrophis, Deorbit), who combines the melodic sensibilities developed through years in extreme metal with a microtonal guitar blended with a cinematic doom, industrial, and drone-driven framework.
“I wanted to do a project that utilized my sense of melody established through various extreme metal outlets but through the lens of a more doom/industrial/drone approach to create music that felt like it was exposing a kind of purgatory, with each song guiding the listener through that purgatory into a place more grounded by the end,” says Hauppa.
This fourth studio recording and second full-length, “Forfeiture Hymns” represents Liminal Spirit‘s most ambitious and extreme work to date. While previous releases explored hypnotic drone-based environments, the new album pushes further into a musical language informed by death metal, industrial music, electronic textures, and psychologically charged storytelling.
At the center of “Forfeiture Hymns” is the continuation of the narrative introduced on the acclaimed previous album, “Unwell.” While “Unwell” chronicled the final days of the troubled character Phillip Hastings within the confines of a nursing home, the new album broadens the scope dramatically by tracing his life from birth onward.
Rather than focusing directly on Phillip himself, “Forfeiture Hymns” tells its story through the perspectives of individuals whose lives have been irrevocably altered by him. Each song documents a different character driven toward suicide following encounters with Phillip, creating a sprawling concept album that examines influence, guilt, abuse, obsession, and the devastating ripple effects of human actions.
“Each track is the story of one of those people and how his influence steered them toward ending their lives. To flesh out the record, I had to create all of these people and develop their motivations, which I then used to create the melodic characteristics of each song,” adds Hauppa.
Designed as a challenging and immersive listening experience, “Forfeiture Hymns” is intentionally confrontational while remaining deeply melodic and memorable. Every composition serves the story, with musical motifs recurring throughout the album and connecting not only individual songs but also previous Liminal Spirit releases.
With “Forfeiture Hymns,” Liminal Spirit continues to blur the boundaries between concept album, psychological horror, and extreme music, delivering a challenging yet immersive work that rewards repeated exploration.
“My hope is that this record resonates with people. It’s the most extreme demonstration of the style so far, but it’s also the most memorable,” adds Hauppa.
To introduce listeners to this complex narrative world, Liminal Spirit is unveiling the lead single “The Initiate”. A track that follows Tommy Pearson, a young boy desperate to join a group of children led by Phillip. What begins as a seemingly innocent initiation ritual spirals into tragedy, mirrored musically through a progression that moves from playful, childlike melodies into frantic and increasingly chaotic territory.
“The track plays out to depict a playful nature that reflects a children’s playground, but builds to a frantic pace as Tommy is desperate for aid with his wounds and approval of the rest of the club,” adds Hauppa.
Listen to “The Initiate” at the following link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0KOVfvvHRI
Recommended for fans of Skepticism, Jesu, Nine Inch Nails, Shape of Despair, Confessor, Anata, and Cynic, “Forfeiture Hymns” will be available on all digital platforms on November 6, 2026.
Album pre-order: https://liminalspirit.bandcamp.com/album/forfeiture-hymns
Track Listing:
1. A Mother’s Instinct (Catherine Hastings, d. 9/24/1937)- 4:25
2. Unwanted (Phillip Hastings Sr., d. 6/12/1938)- 6:00
3. The Initiate (Tommy Pearson, d. 3/03/1951)-5:13
4. Three (Marianne Tierney, d. 4/19/1953)- 5:10
5. Apoptosis (Elizabeth and Christopher Collins, d. 11/20/1963)- 4:13
6. Ensnarer’s Lament (Detective Michael Thornton, 6/01/1978)- 5:00
7. Two (Francine Hastings, d. 10/24/1981)- 4:40
8. Do No Harm (Alice Weaver, 2/17/2015)- 5:21
9. Sins of the Father (Johnathon Hastings, d. 2/20/2015)- 5:18
10. The Parting Glass (Madeline Hastings-Everett, d. 12/5/2025)- 2:23
11. Four (Constance Greene, b. 8/28/2026)- 0:51
Album Recording Credits:
• All songs performed by: Jerry Hauppa
• All songs written by: Jerry Hauppa
• Produced by: Jerry Hauppa
• Mixed by: Jerry Hauppa
• Mastered by: Jeff Wojtysiak
• Album Artwork by: James Becker
Album Band Lineup:
Jerry Hauppa- Kite guitar, fretless guitar, bass guitar, synthesizer, violin, vocoder, sampling
More Info:
https://www.facebook.com/people/Liminal-Spirit/61575618106702/
https://www.instagram.com/liminal_spirit_mke
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“I love when an artist goes all-in for an idea. And sometimes art is not meant to be enjoyed, so much as experienced. It transports you to that invisible realm of mind and imagination, reflecting in this case something truly horrific: a journey through purgatory. There are jagged edges everywhere, shapes and forms that make no sense, and dizzying dissonance from microtonal guitars. If you feel unsettled, that’s the point.” – Doomed and Stoned (2026 – The Initiate song premiere)
“The song we’re premiering, “A Better Place“, is that closing track. In its narrative, Phillip passes into a purgatory where he is judged for his actions, and ultimately cast into hell — not the better place he hoped for. The music manifests this denouement with sounds of mangling discordance and ruthless pounding. The hammering and thudding beats don’t create an easy rhythm, but instead generate a pattern that takes away any sense of balance. Shrill ethereal tones rise up and strangely quiver from within the dissonant, mangling morass of sonic oppressiveness. Wailing vocals rise up too, adding to the song’s hallucinatory and haunting ingredients. The experience is unsettling and unearthly. Warbling spoken words come and go. The dense backing noise is cruel and searing as well as abysmal. The pounding is as vehement as it is destabilizing — until it vanishes, yielding to a cacophonous and indeed hellish finale in which the music itself seems to descend. Siren-like bursts of sound and tormented screams close out the nightmare.” – No Clean Singing (2025 Unwell)
“The title track from this latest concept EP – being released on Halloween – from Milwaukee-based multi-instrumentalist Jerry Hauppa is an appropriately unsettling exploration of themes such as memory, guilt and spiritual reckoning delivered via a fusion of progressive doom metal with avant-garde narrative techniques, crafting what the composer and musician describes as “seance music”, a genre-defying sonic ritual meant to stir movement between spiritual realms:” – THE ÜBER RÖCK SINGLES CLUB DAILY PICK – LIMINAL SPIRIT (Oct 11, 2025 – Unwell)
“Fusing Progressive Doom Metal with avant-garde narrative techniques to create a genre defying sonic ritual meant to stir movement between spiritual realms with title track “Unwell”” – Metal Noise (Unwell 2025)
“A portrait painted by multi instrumentalist Jerry Hauppa in Progressive Doom Metal and avant-garde narrative techniques, the record plays out the deterioration of Phillip’s memory, culminating in death and spiritual judgment before he is cast into hell for all eternity. Known for his work with Deorbit, Hauppa performs the piece using guitar, microtonal guitar, bass, violin, synth, vocoder and drum programming having written, produced and mixed. They call it a genre defying sonic ritual meant to stir movement between spiritual realms….. If someone is needed to write the soundtrack to the next Silent Hill incarnation then Hauppa has just submitted his curriculum vitae” – Metal Noise (Unwell 2025)
“Unwell is a fearless act of musical necromancy. It’s unsettling, artful, and deeply personal—doom metal with a philosopher’s pen and a filmmaker’s eye. Fans of Jesu, Skepticism, and Cynic will find much to admire here, but Liminal Spirit ultimately exists in its own spectral orbit.” – See Rock Live Magazine (Unwell – 2025)
“It’s dense. It’s dark. It demands your full attention. But give it that, and you’ll walk away changed—or at least slightly disturbed. Fans of Skepticism, Kayo Dot, or anyone who enjoys having their psyche gently disassembled: this one’s for you.”- Metalpapyjeff (Unwell 2025)
“I would characterize this is something for Metal fans who think outside the box and don’t need to be spoon fed the typical Metal sound. ” – Metal Temple (Unwell 2025)
“Capturing the desolation of dementia and the abject terror and helplessness of cognitive and bodily decline in an artful way – in sound format – is no easy feat, nor must it have been a light affair. RATING: I give it a 4/5… They deserve to be heard and meditated on. But I love it – I love the concept and the overall delivery – and I wish more people would hear it and think on what it’s trying to tell them!” – Hails Webzine (Unwell 2025)
“Artistically unsettling, for fans of musical curiosity with strange, slightly noisy atmospheres on the edges.” – Music Journalist – Olivier Piot (Unwell 2025)
“It’s dense. It’s dark. It demands your full attention. But give it that, and you’ll walk away changed—or at least slightly disturbed. Fans of Skepticism, Kayo Dot, or anyone who enjoys having their psyche gently disassembled: this one’s for you.”- Metalpapyjeff (Unwell 2025)
“Unwell is a fearless act of musical necromancy. It’s unsettling, artful, and deeply personal—doom metal with a philosopher’s pen and a filmmaker’s eye”- seerocklive.com (2025 Unwell)
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