Are you ready to rock your brain? Digest these next words slowly: sonically enhanced whisky. You don’t even know what it means yet, but you know you’re dying to try it. 

So, let’s back up a sec and lay the groundwork. This story begins with a guy named Dave Pickerell. People who circulate in the booze world remember the master distiller as a pioneer, a teacher, and an advocate for lesser-known spirits. His background in chemical engineering and his natural creativity played a crucial role in his revolutionary approach to the distilling process. 

Dave also loved Metallica. So much so, in fact, he partnered with the band in building Sweet Amber Distilling Co., even going as far as incorporating the band’s music into his whisky: his final gift to the drinking world is a unique blend of American ryes, bourbons, and Canadian whiskys aged in black brandy casks and bombarded with Metallica; the sound waves strike a particular frequency range that intensifies the molecular interaction. The result is “Blackened.” 

When the band began its search for their next master distiller, they said it was a “priority to find someone who could honor and continue the magic that Dave started.” Enter Rob Dietrich, an Army veteran who served two combat tours in Somalia, relief operations in Haiti, and someone who the band said, “shares a great respect for craftsmanship that Dave had and that we have for Blackened.”

So, how does it drink, you ask? I could describe it to you, sure, and I could tell you how “Master of Puppets” sounds while I’m at it, or how it felt to be at San Diego’s Jack Murphy Stadium during the legendary 1992 tour with Guns ‘n’ Roses, you know? Let me just recommend it the way I would with anything worth doing, by saying that until you try it for yourself, you’ve only heard about it.