EPK – Liminal Spirit – Forfeiture Hymns (2026)
Publicist – Jon Asher – jon[@]ashermediarelations[.]com
For fans of Skepticism, Jesu, Confessor, Cynic, Anata
Album Title: Forfeiture Hymns
Release Date: November 6, 2026
Label: Self-Release
Genre: Cinematic Doom Metal
Location of Band: Milwaukee, WI
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“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)
Album Title: Forfeiture Hymns
Release Date: November 6, 2026
Label: Self-Release
Genre: Cinematic Doom Metal
Location of Band: Milwaukee, WI
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
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About The Album Artwork:
The cover shows an abstract depiction of the suicide of the character Madeline from the track “The Parting Glass.” She first appears in the track “Admittance” from the last album, Unwell.
About the album as a whole (LYRICALLY & MUSICALLY):
I wanted this album to flesh out the story of the main character Phillip from the last album, Unwell. That record was a single-room story depicting his final days in a nursing home. This record tells his full story from birth onward, but instead of him being the focal point, his story is told through multiple people whom he has impacted to the point of suicide. Each track is the story of one of those people, and how his influence steered them towards ending their respective 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. I already know what the story of the next album will be.
Track by Track (LYRICALLY & MUSICALLY):
1. A Mother’s Instinct (Catherine Hastings, d. 9/24/1937)- 4:25
-lyrically describes the events right after Phillip’s birth, where his mother, Catherine, struggles to bond with the newborn child. She attempts to smother him to death after realizing she feels nothing for him, but after being caught in the act by her husband, Phillip Sr. (Phillip Jr. survives), she kills herself by ripping open her caesarean wound. The music reflects the tightening of a restricted airway through the tempo changes and gets to a frantic pace towards the climax, where she commits her final act.
2. Unwanted (Phillip Hastings Sr., d. 6/12/1938)- 6:00
-lyrically depicts Phillip Sr’s struggles with raising Phillip Jr. alone, as her blames the child for the mother’s death and resents him while also being unable to provide the care for him that a mother would. Because of this, Phillip Jr. will not stop screaming, and Phillip Sr. debates killing the child but sees remnants of his wife in the child’s eyes, so he decides to end his own life instead. The music takes on the characteristics of a screaming child to depict this, while beforehand having a dreamlike approach to it as the father struggles with the reality of being unable to provide for the child.
3. The Initiate (Tommy Pearson, d. 3/03/1951)-5:13
-Lyrically depicts the hazing initiation of a child who wants to enter the club of a group of kids led by Phillip. He is desperate to join to receive protection from bullying, but Phillip tricks him and prevents him from entering after a self-inflicted bloodletting ritual goes too far, causing Tommy to bleed out at the doorstep of their clubhouse. The music depicts 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.
4. Three (Marianne Tierney, d. 4/19/1953)- 5:10
-This is told from the perspective of one of Phillip Jrs teachers, who becomes pregnant with twins after pursuing an affair with the child. She laments her choices and decides to poison herself, but her dying minutes are interrupted by Phillip discovering her, as she blames him for all of her actions as she dies. She suffers from nausea from morning sickness and guilt throughout the song, which is developed through the seasick nature of the melodies explored on microtonal guitars. Her poisoning moment is captured by an ambient section where she falls in and out of consciousness, only to climax as she becomes defiant when being discovered by Phillip.
5. Apoptosis (Elizabeth and Christopher Collins, d. 11/20/1963)- 4:13
-This depicts the crime that Phillip was accused of in the Unwell album, as he is now speaking in the first person for the only time on the album and lays out his plans towards his victims who haunted him as ghosts in the previous release. You begin to understand more of the importance of the song “Welcome to My World” by Jim Reeves, whose melody built the foundation of the Unwell release and also appears on this record multiple times to tie the events together. Phillip reveals that his motive is to restore balance through the murder of twins after Marianne Tierney died while carrying soon-to-be twins, of whom Phillip was the father. This song has the most industrial atmosphere on the record, developing a mechanically calculated approach that echoes the heartless nature of the crimes.
6. Ensnarer’s Lament (Detective Michael Thornton, 6/01/1978)- 5:00
-This song is told from the perspective of a detective who has been tracking the Collins case, which has been deemed a group suicide. Thornton believes the case is actually a double homicide and has traced a pattern throughout Phillip’s life, as multiple people surrounding him have committed suicide throughout his entire life, although the actual cause of the Collins death is poisoning despite stab wounds present on the children. Thornton has never been able to pinpoint a smoking gun regarding Phillip and chooses to plant evidence, which is discovered and results in the case getting thrown out, allowing Phillip to go free. The guilt in causing this has resulted in Thornton relying on alcohol to cope with it; however, he can’t manage to deal wth the weight of his actions and leaps to his death from the roof of the police station. The music here is frenzied yet almost playful as it attempts to mimic a “cat and mouse” chase. There is a middle section that becomes abstract and ambient to mimic a drunken state. The climax of the song is achieved through a frenzied tempo as Thornton climbs the stairs, and a musically chromatic descent outlines his fall from the roof.
7. Two (Francine Hastings, d. 10/24/1981)- 4:40
-This is told from the perspective of Phillip’s wife, who has recently learned she is pregnant with his third child, and takes a night drive to relieve stress, but eventually decides to commit suicide through a head-on collision. She refers to their two children, Johnathon and Madeline, as being his “perfect family,” unaware that he believes this to be the case because he has reproduced the children that he resents being “taken from him” during Marianne Tierney’s suicide. Francine believes that if he were to find out she is pregnant, due to his abuse of them, Phillip would murder the whole family as it no longer represents his vision of the “ideal family,” and then he would start again with another unlucky person, so her goal is to force him to value Jonathon and Madeline through suffering only the loss of his wife, and preventing others from being affected by his abuse. She speeds into a head-on collision as the music progresses to a driving pace anchored by a single chord and consistent rhythm that is meant to bring to mind road travel, before the tempo increases upon impact.
8. Do No Harm (Alice Weaver, 2/17/2015)- 5:21
-This is told from the perspective of the nurse who finds out about caring for Phillip in the nursing home, and what she reveals frames the story told in the Unwell album in a new way. That record operated under the premise that the ghosts of the Collins children were real and resulted in Phillip’s death and descent into hell, but during this song, Nurse Weaver explains that she had been following the Collins case for years and felt Phillip was responsible, so she decided to slowly poison him with medications that can induce hallucinations as a form of retribution through torture. During these hallucinations, the ghosts of the Collins children appear to Phillip, and he then explains this to Weaver, which implicates him in the crimes because the dementia he suffers from had already erased any memories of the crimes, so he now feels falsely accused, although in his current state there is no way he would know the case details otherwise. She is responsible for the overdose that ends his life, resulting in the events of “A Better Place,” from the previous record Unwell. After his death, she is confronted by the police at her door, signified by the same introductory sound from the track “Visiting Day” from the Unwell album, which indicates the unwanted presence of others. Weaver is defiant and decides to pursue a death through suicide-by-cop by drawing a firearm upon the entering officers. The song builds to a musical climax as the police attempt to break the door down.
9. Sins of the Father (Jonathon Hastings, d. 2/20/2015)- 5:18
-This song is told from the perspective of Phillip’s son Jonathon, who had admitted Phillip into the nursing home at the beginning of the Unwell album. He has returned home from his father’s funeral and has taken on the task of disposing of Phillip’s remaining possessions, and in doing so, finds physical proof of the Collins murders. It is revealed that Jonathon had challenged previous narratives linking Phillip to the crimes, and upon seeing the proof in Phillip’s possessions, is overcome with grief that he has prevented justice and allowed other possible crimes, while also questioning if he himself is capable of the acts he has seen in the photos of the crimes, which had been wrapped in a bloodied sheet tied to the Collins murders. Phillip hangs himself using the sheet as the song builds to a rhythmic climax that is meant to develop a sense of a tightening noose, which then gives way to the climax of the album, which is a reprise of the violin line at the beginning of “A Mother’s Instinct.” This melody appears in numerous forms throughout the record, as does the melody from Jim Reeves “Welcome to My World,” and the main melodies from “Malgestation” from the first Liminal Spirit release, in an effort to tie the three records together.
10. The Parting Glass (Madeline Hastings-Everett, d. 12/5/2025)- 2:23
-This is told from the perspective of Phillip’s daughter Madeline, who was also present during the beginning of the Unwell album as Phillip is checked into the nursing home. During that record, she was despondent and didn’t want to be near Phillip, as she was horrified by his demented state. In this song, she reveals that she has also been diagnosed with dementia, and deeply fears not being able to recognize herself in mirrors as her condition degrades, based on seeing how Phillip declined. The song is a vocals-only track sung through the vocoder that is utilized for all vocals on the album, and is meant to resemble a church hymn as she commits suicide through bloodletting in the bathtub. Her last lines are sung through the main melody of the song “Three,” which also showcases a female character regaining bodily autonomy through suicide.
11. Four (Constance Greene, b. 8/28/2026)- 0:51
-This is an instrumental track built on two sounds: the throbbing swells meant to indicate a developing fetus that are heard on “Three” and the track “Malgestation” from the first Liminal Spirit record, and the end melody from Malgestation. This is meant to indicate that the spirit of Phillip is set to reincarnate through a new character, as despite his dementia degrading his condition throughout Unwell, causing the only semblance of humanity he had ever shown, his true nature is that of a spiritual entity that exists to force all those around him to commit suicide that he has direct influence over but no actual physical force in achieving. The lyrics of “Malgestation” on the first release describe the beginning of Phillip’s life as “cycle three,” meaning this is the third time it has existed and projected its curse onto others. The song is titled “Four” due to it being the fourth time the spirit is born to continue the cycle.
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STORY ANGLES / FUN FACTS ABOUT THE BAND
The music is built on microtonal guitars, which recently got a spotlight through acts like Angine du Poitrine and previously King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard.
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Liminal Spirit is the solo project of Milwaukee multi‑instrumentalist Jerry Hauppa (Northless, Ara, Acanthrophis, Deorbit), a creator of cinematic, expressive, and spiritually confrontational metal. Originally rooted in hypnotic drone and industrial ambience, the project has evolved into a boundary‑pushing fusion of extreme metal language, psychological storytelling, and what Hauppa calls “purgatorial music”—sound designed to guide listeners through the liminal space between worlds.
With the fourth studio recording and second full-length, “Forfeiture Hymn,” Hauppa delivers his most extreme and ambitious work to date. A conceptual full‑length that expands the narrative introduced in Unwell, the album chronicles Phillip Hastings’s entire life and destructive spiritual influence. Instead of centering Phillip himself, each track is told from the perspective of someone whose life he has warped, manipulated, or driven toward suicide. Hauppa created each character from scratch, shaping their motivations and emotional landscapes into distinct melodic identities that define the album’s structure.
The record pushes Liminal Spirit’s sound into new territory: microtonal guitars, industrial atmospheres, frantic rhythmic shifts, and death‑metal‑inflected motifs collide with drone‑based tension and cinematic pacing. Every song is written front‑to‑back as part of a larger conceptual arc, forming a narrative cycle of trauma, guilt, spiritual entrapment, and reincarnation. Hauppa’s writing process begins with the story, lyrics first, then melodic structures shaped to mirror each character’s psychological descent.
Lyrically, Forfeiture Hymn explores the “liminal mindset” through characters who exist at the brink of one life and the threshold of another. Hauppa draws inspiration from the idea of a spirit trapped between worlds, an entity whose influence pushes others toward self‑destruction without ever physically forcing their hand. The album ultimately reveals Phillip as such a being, reincarnating at the end of the record to continue the cycle.
The cover art depicts the suicide of Madeline Hastings from the track The Parting Glass, visually tying Forfeiture Hymn to the events of Unwell. The album also weaves recurring motifs from earlier releases, melodies from “Malgestation,” Jim Reeves’ “Welcome to My World,” and themes from Unwell, creating a multi‑record continuity that binds the trilogy together.
For listeners of Confessor, Nine Inch Nails, Anata, Shape of Despair, and Morbid Angel, Forfeiture Hymn stands as Liminal Spirit’s most jarring, emotive, and narratively complex release, an extreme, confrontational, and provocative descent into spiritual rot and generational ruin.
Discography:
– 2024 – Self-titled – EP
– 2025 – Pathways – EP
– 2025 – Unwell – LP
– 2026 – Forfeiture Hymns – LP
