Metallica’s Blackened Whiskey Unleashes Limited-Edition Rye The Lightning

“They say that lightning never strikes twice, but the second release of Rye The Lightning proves otherwise,” said Metallica lead guitarist Kirk Hammett.

Metallica’s Blackened has unveiled the 2024 version of its acclaimed Rye the Lightning whiskey.

The award-winning distillery’s 2022 Rye the Lightning bottle earned a Gold medal from the John Barleycorn Awards and an impressive 93 rating from Whiskey Advocate, among other boozy accolades. The Rye the Lightning series is naturally named after Metallica’s classic 1984 album, Ride The Lightning, featuring such standards as “For Whom The Bell Tolls,” “Fade to Black” and “Creeping Death.”

Blackened Master Distiller & Blender Rob Dietrich sought to catch whiskey lightning in a bottle once again with his 2024 version.  The latest Rye the Lightning whiskey is crafted from a blend of straight rye whiskeys that were finished in Madeira wine and Caribbean rum casks for 2-14 weeks each, where they underwent Blackened’s proprietary sonic-enhancement process.

Bottled at 92 proof, the resulting rye whiskey blend is said to contain notes of “green apple, barn hay, caramel, and banana bread on the nose with pear, honeysuckle, muscovado, almond, cinnamon, sawn-wood, and waffle cone on the palate,” according to a statement by the brand.

“They say that lightning never strikes twice, but the second release of Rye The Lightning proves otherwise,” said Metallica lead guitarist Kirk Hammett in a statement announcing the new bottle. “Rob captured the spirit of our Ride The Lightning album with the award-winning first batch. And now with the 2024 edition, we are excited to take our fans on that ‘Ride’ once again.”

Dietrich added: “When we launched the first edition of Rye The Lighting in 2022, I knew we had something special. I absolutely love the hay spice and dark earthy notes in American rye whiskey, so it was an adventure to play around with a creative flavor profile through cask finishing.

“I was thrilled that consumers loved this whiskey as much as we did, and with this limited release, I tried to capture some of the innovative magic of the first expression, but with a slightly new spin by upping the proof a couple of notches, while applying non-chill filtering and using a rye with a different mash bill with different types of madeira and rum finishes.”

Blackened whiskey is famously “sonically enhanced” using a unique proprietary scientific process co-developed by sound engineers at Berkeley, California-based Meyer Sound Laboratories.

Dubbed “Black Noise,” this spirited sonic-enhancement process produces low-hertz sound waves causing the whiskey to “reverberate” at high speeds, interacting with the oak staves of the barrel and supposedly releasing wood compounds and flavors that accounts for Blackened whiskey’s high-quality finish. 

Ready to get loud with Metallica’s latest whiskey? Rye The Lightning is available now for $69.99 per bottle.