Liminal Sky – All Tomorrow’s Darkness
Release Date: 19th June 2026
Label: Karisma Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Post-Rock, Prog Rock.
FFO: Jeff Buckley, Ulver, The Mars Volta, Anathema, Radiohead, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Sigur Rós, Talk Talk.
Review By: Magnus Rotås
There are albums that soundtrack a certain mood, and then there are albums that become a place you inhabit. All Tomorrow’s Darkness, the debut release from Liminal Sky, belongs to the latter category. Conceived by acclaimed producer Jaime Gomez Arellano and musician Daniel Knight—former collaborators in Messenger and now reunited under a new creative banner.
Across its 56-minute runtime, All Tomorrow’s Darkness unfolds like an endless horizon beneath leaden skies, weaving together grief, insomnia, longing, and fleeting hope into something profoundly beautiful. Recorded in isolation at Orgone Studios amidst the stark stillness of the English countryside, the album feels inseparable from its surroundings. The fields, the grey weather, the silence, and the solitude seem embedded within every note. This is not merely an album about melancholy—it is melancholy rendered as landscape, an image cemented by the album’s cover art, that lingers in every note that is being played.
What immediately sets Liminal Sky apart is their extraordinary command of atmosphere. Gomez Arellano and Knight understand that true emotional weight does not come from excess but from restraint. Every texture, every swelling crescendo, every lingering moment of quiet serves a purpose. The result is a record that feels cinematic in scope while remaining deeply intimate at its core.
From the opening strains of Some Other Time to the devastating title track that closes the album, there is a remarkable sense of cohesion and emotional honesty. A Solitary Future drifts between resignation and yearning with heartbreaking elegance, while In Some Secret Universe and Forget Me Not expand the album’s emotional palette into realms of dreamlike beauty. Penance and The Weight of Heaven stand among the album’s most powerful moments, balancing crushing emotional gravity with moments of transcendent release.
The vocal performances elevate the material even further. Mat McNerney’s contributions are extraordinary throughout. Equally impressive are the appearances from Kristoffer Rygg, Karin Park, and Daniel O’Sullivan, each bringing their own distinct character while serving the album’s singular vision rather than overshadowing it.
The supporting cast reads like a who’s who of contemporary Nordic experimental music. Contributions from Tore Ylwizaker, Ole Alexander Halstensgård, Anders Møller, Lars Horntveth, Alicia Nurho, Matt Rozeik, and others enrich the sonic landscape with remarkable subtlety. Yet despite the wealth of talent involved, All Tomorrow’s Darkness never feels crowded. Every collaborator enhances the atmosphere without distracting from the emotional journey.
Perhaps the album’s greatest achievement is its ability to find beauty without resorting to false optimism. This is a record steeped in darkness, yet it never succumbs to despair. Instead, it reveals the strange illumination that can emerge from loss, loneliness, and uncertainty. Hope appears only in brief flashes, but those moments shine all the brighter against the surrounding shadows.
The production is immaculate. Gomez Arellano’s decades of experience working with artists such as Ghost, Ulver, Opeth, and Paradise Lost are evident throughout, but this record never feels like a showcase for technical prowess. Every sonic choice serves the songs, creating a vast, immersive soundscape that rewards repeated listening. Headphones reveal countless hidden details; a dark room reveals even more.
For a debut album, All Tomorrow’s Darkness is astonishingly assured. It possesses the confidence and artistic identity of a band many records into their career. More importantly, it succeeds in creating something increasingly rare: a work that feels genuinely necessary. This is music born from isolation, grief, and uncertainty, yet transformed into something universal and enduring.
Liminal Sky have announced themselves prominently with All Tomorrow’s Darkness — one of the more emotionally resonant and compelling post-rock records of recent years. Beautifully bleak, devastatingly human, and utterly immersive, it is an album that lingers long after its final notes fade into silence.
(4.5 / 5)
