Liminal Spirit Announces New Album 'Forfeiture Hymns'
Milwaukee-based avant-garde doom metal project Liminal Spirit will release its new album, Forfeiture Hymns, on November 6, 2026. The upcoming record continues the disturbing conceptual narrative introduced on the project's previous album, Unwell, expanding its themes of psychological horror, guilt, obsession, and the lasting consequences of human behavior.
The project comes from multi-instrumentalist and composer Jerry Hauppa, whose previous musical work includes Northless, Ara, and Deorbit. Through Liminal Spirit, Hauppa explores an experimental combination of cinematic doom, industrial music, drone, death metal influences, and electronic textures. His approach incorporates microtonal guitar work and atmospheric arrangements to create an unsettling musical environment.
Forfeiture Hymns marks the project's fourth studio recording and second full-length album. The record revisits the fictional world established on Unwell, which followed the final days of Phillip Hastings in a nursing home. This time, Hauppa expands the narrative across Hastings' lifetime, exploring the perspectives of individuals whose encounters with him ultimately lead to their deaths by suicide.
Each composition develops the history and psychological circumstances of a different character, with musical motifs connecting their individual stories. The result is an ambitious concept that draws as heavily from psychological horror and character-driven storytelling as it does from extreme metal.
"This is a continuation and recontextualizing of the story from the previous album Unwell," explains Hauppa.
"Each song tells the story of an individual character's demise based on proximity to the main character of that album, told musically in highly unorthodox and extreme ways."
The album's sound draws from the harsher elements of death metal while incorporating industrial rhythms, electronic experimentation, and the expansive atmosphere of drone and doom. Hauppa describes his intention as creating music that evokes a kind of purgatory, guiding listeners through increasingly challenging emotional and sonic territory.
Liminal Spirit has also introduced the track "The Initiate" ahead of the album's release.
Hauppa wrote, performed, produced, and mixed the album, with mastering handled by Jeff Wojtysiak and artwork created by James Becker.
Fans of Godflesh, Nine Inch Nails, Confessor, Anata, and Morbid Angel may find something worth exploring in Liminal Spirit's unconventional approach to heavy music.
Forfeiture Hymns arrives November 6, 2026, as an independent release. Pre-orders are available through the project's official Bandcamp page.
Track Listing:
A Mother's Instinct
Unwanted
The Initiate
Three
Apoptosis
Ensnarer's Lament
Two
Do No Harm
Sins of the Father
The Parting Glass
Four
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