Under Auburn Skies Return with Personal, Heavy ‘Diminisher of Hope’

Denver metalcore band Under Auburn Skies has been quiet since 2021’s Invention of Reason. Their new EP, Diminisher of Hope, cuts that silence with six tracks of emotionally heavy music that balances melody and brutality. The title’s invented word signals the band’s concern with how hope erodes—slowly, and then all at once.

Drums were recorded at Rusty Sun Studios, guitars and bass with Emilio Lujan, vocals and additional guitars at the Blasting Room. Chris Wiseman (Shadow of Intent, Currents) mixed and mastered the EP, giving it a polished but direct attack that serves vocalist Sebastian Gorklo’s lyrics. For the first time, Gorklo wrote complete songs, and he shaped them around specific people in his life—not as critiques, but as honest records of what he felt while they shared time. “I really explored the depths of myself,” he said. “Final Sin,” the song that means the most to him, addresses what he calls his “biggest wound”; he was crying as he wrote the words.

Only “World-Eater” turns outward, to the country’s political divisions. The rest maps personal terrain honed during what Gorklo calls an “extremely challenging and transformative” period. This inward focus gives Diminisher of Hope a gravity that doesn’t rely on metalcore’s usual bombast. Under Auburn Skies play a hometown release show at The O on July 31, and return to the same venue in November with Fear Factory and Darkest Hour.