NEWS RELEASE
Montreal, QC – November 5, 2026
Streaming Now! Avant-Garde Cinematic Doom LIMINAL SPIRIT New Story Album “Forfeiture Hymns”
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Liminal Spirit, the Milwaukee-based one-man project led by multi-instrumentalist Jerry Hauppa (Kite guitar, fretless guitar, bass guitar, synthesizer, violin, vocoder, sampling), will release its new full-length album “Forfeiture Hymns” on November 6th.
Ahead of its official release, fans can experience the record in its entirety through an exclusive full-album stream premiere with Metal Addicts HERE.
A boundary-pushing fusion of extreme metal, industrial textures, drone atmospherics, and cinematic storytelling, “Forfeiture Hymns” continues and expands the dark conceptual narrative introduced on Liminal Spirit‘s acclaimed previous album “Unwell”. While “Unwell” focused on the final days of its central figure, Phillip Hastings, confined to a nursing home, “Forfeiture Hymns” journeys through the entirety of his life and examines the devastating impact he has on everyone around him.
“I wanted to do a project that utilized my sense of melody established through various extreme metal outlets but now through the lens of a more industrial/drone approach. The goal was to create music that felt like it was exposing a kind of purgatory, and each song was an attempt to guide the listener through that purgatory into a place more grounded by the end,” explains Hauppa.
Described as cinematic, epic, expressive, emotive, and jarring, “Forfeiture Hymns” showcases the evolution of Liminal Spirit‘s sound into its most refined and uncompromising form. Influenced by death metal and doom metal while incorporating industrial and electronic elements, the album balances abrasive intensity with a deeply atmospheric and emotionally resonant approach.
“I think it’s the most extreme demonstration of the style so far but also the most memorable. Hopefully it resonates with people,” adds Hauppa.
A true concept album in every sense, “Forfeiture Hymns” follows a meticulously constructed narrative. Each track explores the perspective of an individual whose life has been irreparably altered by Phillip Hastings, eventually leading them toward suicide. Through these interconnected stories, Hauppa examines themes of trauma, influence, guilt, suffering, mortality, and the liminal spaces between life and death. Every aspect of the music serves the narrative.
“I decide what the lyrical story for the album/song will be, and shape the melodic structures from there, as they have to develop what the story is telling. Every record is written from the first note to the last, as they are all concept records,” adds Hauppa.
The album’s striking cover artwork depicts an abstract representation of Madeline Hastings’ death, a pivotal character whose story concludes the record and connects directly to events established on “Unwell”. Musically, the album ties together themes and melodies that have appeared throughout the Liminal Spirit discography, creating a broader narrative arc that stretches across multiple releases while teasing future chapters already envisioned by Hauppa.
Designed to challenge and immerse listeners, “Forfeiture Hymns” offers an experience that is as emotionally unsettling as it is musically adventurous.
“I want it to be confrontational yet provocative enough to maintain interest, as it is deliberately built on what will be an unfamiliar language to most listeners,” says Hauppa.
Liminal Spirit remains a wholly independent and singular artistic vision. Hauppa, known for his work with Northless, Ara, Acanthrophis, and currently active in Deorbit, performs and writes all music for the project himself, continuing to push the boundaries of conceptual extreme music.
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 order: https://liminalspirit.bandcamp.com/album/forfeiture-hymns
Lyric Video “Sins of the Father” – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JZk6OYrMvPs
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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)
““Sins of the Father” involves Johnathon Hastings — Phillip Hastings’ own monstrous son. Johnathon is the narrator, describing his disposition of his late father’s belongings. Those belongings include a mysterious locked chest, its terrifying contents, and the effects of the discovery on Johnathon himself. The music is also terrifying, as deeply unsettling as the tale that unfolds through the harshly screamed words. The song also warrants the term “cinematic”, because it does come across like the nerve-racking soundtrack to a horrifying film, one whose horrors do not depend on the supernatural for their chilling effects. In constructing this soundtrack Liminal Spirit creates a changing collage of gleaming, shimmering, and shivering tones, sometimes accented by horn-like fanfares that blare and wail, sounding both demented and ominous. The music is twisted, anxiety-inducing, and hallucinatory but it compulsively draws the listener into its strange intrigues. The song further includes heavy bass tones and slugging drums that are in the forefront of the experience, but the drums have been arranged in ways that enhance the song’s unsettling atmosphere. The beats don’t proceed in simple or straightforward ways but instead suddenly stop and re-start, undergo feverish convulsions, pump like pistons, and pound out off-kilter grooves. Before the song ends, those horn-like tones ring in ways that seem to channel wrenching dismay, crushing fear, hopeless agonies, and crushing grief, and even the mania exhibited in the drumming doesn’t distract from the shattering nature of those feelings” – NoCleanSinging (2026 – Sins of the Father 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)
“A harrowing, inventive and deeply affecting piece of cinematic doom that turns one man’s poisonous legacy into a chorus of lost voices. Liminal Spirit have made their most ambitious statement yet, and it lingers long after the final note fades.” – The Raor’s Edge Rocks
“If you enjoy seeing how a musician can thread a recurring concept throughout multiple albums, please do check this out. The textures stay varied. The dread is successfully sustained throughout the release. The microtonal guitars are effectively otherworldly and fucking creepy. RATING: 4.5/5. I quite enjoyed the originality of this piece and look forward to seeing what that monster Phillip, reincarnated, is going to do on the next release!” – Hails Webzine
“Kite guitar. Fretless guitar. Synth. Vocoder. Sampling. Drum programming. These are the weapons put to good use by Jerry Hauppa in Liminal Spirit. Known for his work with Northless, Ara, Acanthrophis and Deorbit in this project he merges the melodic sensibilities forged in extreme metal with industrial, drone and cinematic textures to create an immersive listening experience that is both unsettling and deeply emotional. ” – Metal Noise
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