With their full-length debut, Danish prog-metal upstarts Kinetic unfurl a concept album inspired by the Kardashev Scale, a framework proposed by the late Russian astrophysicist Nikolai Kardashev that measures civilisation’s technological evolution by the amount of energy it can harness. Narrated by a free-floating entity known only as Tony, Liminal imagines a cosmic journey in which humanity rises and falls in a never-ending loop. Through long-form epics such as “Evolution”, “New Frontiers” and “Omega”, the band channels prog sorcerers Opeth, Porcupine Tree and Pink Floyd into a sprawling, ambitious and impressively executed work.