LIMINAL SPIRIT, the atmospheric industrial doom project of Milwaukee multi-instrumentalist Jerry Hauppa, has released Forfeiture Hymns. It's the project's second full-length and fourth release overall, and it's out now on Bandcamp and streaming services.
Hauppa, known for his work with NORTHLESS, ARA, ACANTHROPHIS and DEORBIT, handles everything himself: kite guitar, fretless guitar, synth, vocoder, sampling and drum programming. He also wrote, produced and mixed the record. Jeff Wojtysiak mastered it, and James Becker painted the cover.
Like everything LIMINAL SPIRIT has put out, Forfeiture Hymns is a concept album. It returns to Phillip, the central figure of 2025's Unwell. That record followed his final days in a nursing home; the new one traces his life from birth onward, told through the people whose lives his influence wrecked. Each of the 11 tracks is named after one of them, with a date attached. Hauppa says he had to invent every one of these characters and their motivations, and then built each song's melodic character around them.
The sound has moved a long way from the hypnotic drone of the 2024 self-titled debut EP and 2025's Pathways EP. The project now blends death metal extremity with industrial textures, electronic atmospherics and microtonal guitar dissonance. The PR team pitches it to fans of SKEPTICISM, SHAPE OF DESPAIR, JESU, CONFESSOR, ANATA and CYNIC, with NINE INCH NAILS in the mix as well.
Hauppa describes the goal as music that exposes "a kind of purgatory" and guides the listener through it. For this album, he says, he wanted something "confrontational yet provocative enough to maintain interest," since it's deliberately built on what will be an unfamiliar musical language for most listeners.
"Forfeiture Hymns" tracklist:
- A Mother's Instinct
- Unwanted
- The Initiate
- Three
- Apoptosis
- Ensnarer's Lament
- Two
- Do No Harm
- Sins of the Father
- The Parting Glass
- Four
Order & Stream "Forfeiture Hymns": Bandcamp · Spotify
Follow LIMINAL SPIRIT: Bandcamp · Spotify · Apple Music · Instagram