Dark Aoud by Montale, 2011

The fragrance of the witch's shade, appalling as the pirate Dark Dog wolking hooded in the more obscure of the nights. Sepulchral, impersonal and ghostly, Michael Myers in the course of the night of Halloween would have worn it. Unbelievably bold, petroleous and sulphureous. Possibly the darkest concoction ever created, sometimes i think beyond each limit. The lords of the night have now their naughtiest potion and i'm a lord of the night. Dark Aoud introduces a dry and castigatory temperament, a sort of incensey ascetic substance and a deep and melancholy woody beat. This one is even more daculaesque than the infamous Salvador Dali Pour Homme and Black Afgano, something brutal and forbidding that needs more time for it full accomplishment. My sister says it smells like the death. Ostensibly similar at the beginning to the New York Oud Bond (even for the common usage of the musky resin of teak wood) which is anyway a decidedly different beast being endly cool, more versatile, watery, floral and approachable. The Bond one is endly eastern and fizzy, less severe, less spicy and with a more animalic-human beat. New York Oud owns life, Dark Aoud does not. The dry sandalwood in Dark Aoud is the king, it plunges in a sink of obscure, camphoraceous, smoky aoud and drowns under tar and sedimentated resins. This fragrance exudes a slightly dusty, gassy and deep sort of smell also because of the roaring role played by spices as black pepper and saffron. It also develops a sort of masculine stiff temperament because of the right dosage of vetiver and ambergris. Dark Aoud is averagely dry because of the precious woods and ambergris but doesn't slide in to the drought. Dry amber and a bit of vetiver on the side of spices keep on steady the high level of roughness. The final outcome is all obscure dry woods, old dark leather and petroleous resins. I detect some similarities with Duro and Black Afgano Nasomatto because of notes of aoud, leather and sandalwood but this one is darker and more gassy than Duro (which with shares the leather regardless a strong dosage of sandalwood) and is far less mellow and brewing than Black Afgano, which is almost as obscure as this one but less severe and more appealing because of the presence of some flowers as violets and a more tasty and creamy influence of sweet balsams. The concern with Dark Aoud is that it takes at least five or six hours to turn from an almost off-putting status to a gorgeous cimmerian good smelling fragrance, just the time necessary some resins and woods develop a touch of mellow mildness. The projection is like the movie " From here to eternity". Perfect for serial killers, grave-diggers, wandering devils and captains of army.