Metal Wave AllSaints 2018

It is late autumn 2019 and I am standing in my favorite perfume shop, my gaze falling on the beautifully designed bottles from Allsaints. Minimalist lines, a cap reminiscent of concrete, and monochrome photographs of plants. I am excited and my interest is piqued.
The names of the compositions evoke associations and fuel even more curiosity. I just want to like these scents. So I give them a try.
However, Metal Wave disappointed me at first. Nothing metal. Nothing wave. And no metallic wave either. Whatever. I want to at least give a late evening uprising a chance with a sample. Which scent I took with me that day remains forever hidden in oblivion.

It is autumn 2020 and the brand has made its way back into my memory; the sample I took last year is still half full, and I find a good deal in the souk.
Okay, I want to give the brand another chance. And somehow, Metal Wave sounds really brilliant in theory.
Alright. As the third of its kind, it enters my collection.
One thing upfront: Allsaints has proven to me multiple times that they can create extraordinary scents.

So, Metal Wave.
Let’s briefly say goodbye to the idea that anything metallic or wet has flowed into this fragrance. It hasn’t. Instead, the scent is rather warm and dry, not cool and damp.
And compared to rugged scents, this is a candy store. Luckily, my interest in fragrances is very broad.

Oh, and may I quickly express my thanks for the great bottle design before I dive in? The back of the label being adorned with the same photograph found on the packaging, making the bottle look like a little work of art when placed "incorrectly," is just a fantastic idea.

Now, though. It is Friday evening in a larger city on a mild summer day. A light, very pleasant breeze is blowing, and the uprising seems not to have taken place yet. Whether the first three scents from the brand are somehow related or have a dramatic sequence is, of course, pure speculation, but it fits the image this scent projects in my mind.
So we find ourselves at a café or a pub in the pedestrian zone, where some people are drinking coffee, others already wine or beer, and some are flipping through their newspaper or a book that has already started to yellow. And now a gust of wind in the form of a wave carries this mélange through the metallic facades of the metropolis into my nose. Ta-da, there is the wave of metal. Just without any wave and metal.

Yes, it is a very successful scent. Although completely without surprises or twists, it does have one or two twists at the beginning that one wouldn’t expect. Just perhaps one should let the expectations from the name influence them a little less.
It annoys me a bit that I didn’t try it earlier. On the other hand...