Metalfan

Friday the 8.8.2018 - ask me, what kind of fragrance am I wearing tonight?! It's supposed to be something special. Judas Priest, for me the biggest band on the globe, comes to Dortmund and I am there.
Metal for Men EdT might fit. KK Downing, the ex-guitarist and co-founder of Judas Priest, had the idea to bring him and Metal pour Femme to the "Metal people". Together with the Astbury Fragrance Co he developed these fragrances over months.
But what good is that now? I don't own any metal before Men and don't even know the scent.
Now I stand in front of my perfume shelf and have something to complain about every scent. It is also not easy to find the right heat. 26 degrees they announced.
Wait a minute, I still have my box of samples and fillings. After a few minutes I hold my miniflacon Tauer No.2 L'Air du Désert Marocain in my hand. Bingo - No2 is today my No1!

So bsst, bsst, bsst, bsst, get out of the bathroom and into jeans and T-shirt. Another big kiss for the woman (who unfortunately can't do anything with Heavymetal, so stays at home) ...háaalt, the ticket still ... and from geht´s. After 2 minutes on the side of the road my buddy comes already to a stop. The poor guy has to be on the night shift for a few hours after the concert. (which would clarify who the driver and who the beer drinker is ;-)))
No.2 does a good job in an air-conditioned car. It creates a relaxed atmosphere,

Arrival! I enter the Westfalenhalle in Dortmund for the first time, better the anteroom and then, guess what ... gibt´s first of all a cool beer and a currywurst (that is currywurst there is really awesome!).
It smells like beer, currywurst and No.2 now - so I feel great! And No.2 is getting more and more sympathetic. No.2 has nothing gourmand, nothing "tasty" or personal about it. I couldn't associate him with any person.
Rather No.2 is a state, a law, or something like the "cosmic background radiation".
(when my wife reads this, she'll have a laugh, no matter...)

Rickthedog had the brilliant idea to compare No.2 with the song "Kashmir" by Led Zeppelin. For the band this song was considered the peak of their works, not Stairway to Heaven. The latter is more personal, so to speak "to touch". Kashmir has it harder there because he sounds unfamiliar and therefore a bit frightening for many. It already requires overcoming to get involved with the good piece.
Or as Robert Plant said: "It was a great piece of music to write it, and an incredible challenge for me.... It was a difficult task because I couldn't sing it. It was like the song was bigger than me. It's true: I was petrified. It was painful; I was near tears." (Wikipedia)

Something's going on in the hall. Cheer, scream, whistle - so let's get in there! And now gab´s a big surprise for us. We were looking forward to Megadeth as our opening act. And who's on stage? Uriah Heep! Does it matter? Neeee - and they start with Gypsy, my favourite song of this band. The singer gives me the impression that he doesn't do a show but hypnotizes himself deeper and deeper into the music. So much passion .... highest risk of infection! And there you go.

After the first spectacle is over, it's time to take some beer away, get something new and off to the front. We didn't quite achieve our goal of standing at the stage, but at least we are almost at the front. The mood is bombastic.
But before the longest serving Heavymetal band starts, gibt´s has a starter from the band. The grandmasters and "metal inventors" (along with Led Zeppelin) Black Sabbath, whose last German appearance in Cologne my buddy and I were allowed to be part of, are honoured with their goose bumps - high-flyer "War Pigs". And even before Priest stormed the stage one thing became clear to us: "today we did everything right"!

Action - Curtain up for Judas Priest! With the song "Firepower" (also the name bearer of their new album) they start - the Westfalenhalle is shaking - !!Hexenkessel!! Blazing flames on a giant screen and "metal god" Rob Halford sounds as if he had doped his vocal chords. Then one hammer song at a time. They even play "The Ripper", "Hellbent For Leather" and "Painkiller"... oh man, we're in a metal paradise! And No.2?

No2 is always noticeable. Even in this euphoria, he doesn't drown. On the contrary, it underscores them. Today I managed to get totally involved with him. I realize that No.2 is only for very "special features". In everyday life he seems to me quite interesting but also a bit colourless. With "special features", however, it makes red red red, blue blue, heat hotter and cold colder.
Do you like going to an opera? ...take him with you! Or to the Helene Fischer concert? ...take him with you! Or how about a nocturnal desert trip to admire the stars? ...take him with you! But don't take him to work, shopping or the car wash. You can't see the starry sky under the clouds!

In the finale, Priest brings guitarist Glan Tipton, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, onto the stage. The level of applause is enormous and gives me goose bumps. "Honour to whom honour is due!" After all, as co-founder of the Priest legend, he made Heavymetal really salonable with his guitar riffs.
"Living after Midnight" runs as a traditional farewell song, then the curtain falls. "The Priest will be back!" is now on the screen. Please! Please!!!

When I first got a taste of Black Amber, my first thought was: "He belongs to the sea!" He's got something "fishy," but not gammy or nasty - honor alive. I wonder if it's the Amber Honestly, I have no idea what Amber smells like.
Then a character after Jack London came to mind, "The Sea Wolf." Literarily surely a high-quality material, but the film adaptations of the novel were quite hard fare for a little boy like me at that time. I couldn't get these cruel and inhuman actions of the leading actor out of my head. His intelligence, intellectual superiority and physical strength also made him seem invincible.
Today I am an older gentleman and in relation to films nevertheless quite emotionally resistant. It's just a movie and Black Amber's just a scent. Or is this setting wrong?

Black Amber is a difficult fragrance. He wants to say something, but what? I realized I was blocking myself. Maybe he wants to say something that I don't want to know that scares me?
I decided to put him on ice and wait for the right time for a second test. I already had an idea!

A few weeks ago I stranded, of course with Black Amber in my luggage, on the beautiful North Sea island of Borkum. My family doctor, who had been urging me to take a cure for quite some time, was to blame for this. Hochseereizklima, which only prevails on Helgoland and Borkum in Germany, should help me to alleviate my chronic bronchitis (my receipt for 31 years of cigarette consumption).
Some applications and extended beach walks were announced. Unfortunately, my wife and dog could not come with me, which I found very regrettable. On the other hand, I now had the opportunity to concentrate exclusively on my recovery.

One day, in the middle of June, the thermometer was 12 degrees at dusk, with a strong wind and some rain showers. And right now, Black Amber, your time has come - I thought. A few sprays on the wrist, shoes on and out to sea.
Once there I took off my shoes and walked barefoot along the edge of the water. The spray flew around my ears and I had to be careful that no sand flew into my eyes. I thought it was funny that I didn't freeze a bit despite my thin shirt. Somehow I felt strong and nothing could stress me out. Also not the sharp-edged mussel, into which I stepped and now bleed a little at the foot.

There were many shells on the beach and there were more and more. And a dead bird, jellyfish and crabs or parts thereof. I never noticed it like that. The beach is suddenly a gigantic cemetery. I look at the sea and wonder what all the deadly things might be lurking in it. How infinitely much fate and drama may have taken place in it in tens of millions of years?
And in that moment I could understand him, the Black Amber!

Black Amber doesn't have a black soul! He's neither good nor evil. It tells the true story of the dark side of the sea and its constant force of nature. That makes him a demigod among fragrances for me! Its colour is green, brown, black - like a North Sea wave at dusk.
Black Amber is often described as mystical, voodoo - cult, demonic etc.. I can understand that very well. He has nothing human about him and radiates a scary - beautiful aura.

The next day the beach was full of life. A Brazilian live band plays in a pavilion, the acoustics are amazingly good. Some people dance and sing along. Small children build a sand castle or fly kites with their daddy. You surf what you can...
We humans just have our own laws.

Maggi? Sure, it was my first thought, too. If you perfume yourself with 20 Mars 2022 roundwood, you might ask yourself whether you've got yourself full of Maggi. That gave me an idea...

A few sprays of 20 Mars 2022 on my left wrist, a few drops of liquid - Maggi on the right. So...?? But now the monkey's gonna fuckin' kill me!

20 Mars 2022 is light years odourless from Maggi - liquid wort removed! And this over the entire course of the fragrance. The dominating lovage (also called Maggia herb, although not contained in Maggi), pepper, strawberry and vanilla later give the fragrance an earthy, Gourmand Cham. Frankincense and Zibet, on the other hand, provide a certain mysticism, which finally justifies the "galactic" name.

For the sake of fairness I would like to mention that Maggi should score points purely in terms of taste (I didn't taste the roundwood though :-))). Maggi is also clearly ahead in endurance and silage. Once this has penetrated the skin, neither brush nor soap can help. In the world of perfume, however, 20 Mars 2022 is a block of power that is looking for its equal.

Roundwood 20 Mars 2022 will not move into my perfume shelf. I just can't think of a fitting opportunity to wear it. And as a kitchen - room scent it is too bad, especially as it would sink when cooking soup. When my bottling is used up, however, I will order a new one. Sometimes you just get appetite.

Ps: Thanks to Meggi for fixing it!

I think it's quite bold to create such an "antidote" and bring it onto the market! Perfumers usually try to make their creations as pleasant as possible. After all, the customer should feel well or spoiled. A fragrance always has some job to do, such as raising the mood, underlining the personality, seducing, floating on cloud 7, making on thick pants, falling into holiday mood, strengthening self-confidence, tempting to meditate and so on. What job has 1740 MdS? now?

A fragrance named after the (psychological) ancestor of sadism was first intended to represent sexual dominance. Of course not in the conventional, "healthy" way. Rather in a humiliating, contemptuous, frightening, cruel way, without wanting to please his "victim" in the slightest. If you feel disgusted by 1740 MdS, he still lives up to his name. That answers the job question. But does 1740 - Marquis de Sade smell sadistic?

When I sprayed MdS for the first time I was a little surprised. The fragrance has a range.
Have I sprayed myself with a "person" or an entire city? Somehow I felt like I was in a big city. Crowds of people, some with noble perfumes, some unwashed, stray dogs, trees, shrubs, asphalt, bankers, smoking rockers with old leather jackets, a red light environment.... All social classes represented, from the millionaire to the beggar, who by the way seems to have a sandwich in his pocket. But then, after about an hour, I landed in a secluded side street. And now I could finally associate the scent with a single person. Now he finally stood in front of me, in my "Smell - Head Cinema Imagination", the Marquis de Sade.

From a distance he seems threatening somehow. Sadistic? I might. No horror guy P18, honor P12. He doesn't seem artificial or ridiculous at all. MdS is not a joke!
I take after about two hours almost only leather and patchouli was left. The big city seems to be blown away by the wind. MdS now seems almost familiar. But wait, what do I see there? A sandwich that's been bunched up peeps out of his trouser pocket. Did Marquis de Sade steal from the beggar? I almost invited him for a beer. But that's not how it's gonna work out between you and me

Have Gerald Ghislain and Sylvie Jourdet done their homework now? I think so. The dirty, spoiled, repulsive, which demands a fragrance with this name, seems to be marketing itself. But MdS will better not go into my collection. Or do I give the "antidote" another chance?

Good Pentecost to you all wishes Metalfan!