AURUM NOSTRUM

The first comparison many people make when it comes to Sinkadus is their fellow Swedish outfit Anglagard, or possibly Landberk. Following in the wake of their fellow Swedes with an album constructed, like the classic Hybris, as a four-track tribute to the prog giants of the past, Sinkadus' Aurum Nostrum didn't click with me for a very long while because as pleasant as it is, the album doesn't quite manage the level of technical wizardry displayed by Anglagard on their debut.

However, over time I have to admit that there's a certain haunting melancholy to the album. True, there's touches of a similar melancholy in the work of Anglagard, or in fellow Swedish prog revivalists Landberk, but it's not quite the same as Sinkadus. Perhaps the naive nature of their approach, counter-intuitively, helps to inspire a certain je ne sais quoi which means that, much as I might have criticised this album in the past, I can't quite altogether walk away from it.