release date: Mar. 1986
format: vinyl (MLR-55) / cd (1997 reissue)
[album rate: 4 / 5] [3,86]
producer: Stefan Glaumann, Imperiet
label: Mistlur - nationality: Sweden
Track highlights: 1. "Österns röda ros" (4 / 5) - 2. "Cosmopolite" - 3. "D-D-D-D (Dum-Dum-Dollar-Djungel)" - 4. "Saker som hon gör" (4 / 5) - 5. "Vykort" - 6. "Tennsoldat och eldvakt" - 7. "Bibel" - 9. "Innan himlen faller ner" - *10. "Märk hur vår skugga (Epistel 81)"
*Bonus track on 1997 cd reissue
3rd full-length studio album by Imperiet following Blå himlen blues (Mar. 1985) is as usual with Stefan Glaumann as producer. The 1997 reissue is expanded with two bonus tracks. The band has always been on the move experimenting with styles and on this album, the band has now progressed into a more orchestrated sound with the use of strings, organs, harmonica, and more synths. The album has a concept dealing with 'Sin' ['Synd' is Swedish for 'Sin'], and all tracks deal with different aspects of sin and sinners.
My initial feelings were that it was an album containing some fine songs but also with several compositions with too much focus on Per Hägglund's keyboards. However, that impression didn't stay for more than another decade. I have always seen this as the last really good album by Imperiet, but perhaps it's actually their finest hour. Fact is, I have come to appreciate this album much more over the years and not just hear Hägglund's synths. It contains many strong tracks, and when you listen to later Thåström albums, there's definitely links to what appears to be industrial rock bits and pieces on this. It's tight and it appears as the band's most coherent album.
After this they released the English versioned album Imperiet (1987) (not to be confused with their homonymous Mini-LP, 1984), which in a way is a compilation album as it consists of English versions of older songs.
