Sonic Brew

Release Information:
Released:	October 28, 1998 (Japan), May 4, 1999 (USA)
Recorded:	1998-1999
Length:	59:47
Record Label:	Spitfire
Producers:	Ron Albert, Howard Albert, Zakk Wylde

Track listing:

1. “Bored to Tears” 4:28
2. “The Rose Petalled Garden” 4:55
3. “Hey You (Batch of Lies)” 3:53
4. “Born to Lose” 4:23
5. “Peddlers of Death” 4:33
6. “Mother Mary” 4:26
7. “Beneath the Tree” 4:09
8. “Low Down” 5:04
9. “T.A.Z.” 1:56
10. “Lost My Better Half (SECOND PRESSING ONLY)” 4:24
11. “Black Pearl” 3:27
12. “World of Trouble” 5:20
13. “Spoke in the Wheel” 4:13
14. “The Beginning… At Last” 4:26

Reissue bonus track:
15. “No More Tears” 6:57

Sonic Brew is the first album by Black Label Society. The album was initially released in Japan on October 28, 1998. It contained 13 tracks (lacking “Lost My Better Half” and “No More Tears”); the cover art was printed on clear plastic, with a separate paper booklet. The back cover was printed with golden ink and the packaging was a lot higher quality than all later versions.

There was a long delay before it was released outside of Japan, because the drums and vocals were buried on some of the tracks towards the end of the disc, so it was collectively decided to remix it for the US release. Due to the delay, Wylde and drummer Phil Ondich decided to give the USA an added bonus and went to the studio in California and recorded the aggressive “Lost My Better Half” as a one-off bonus track for the album – the recording of which reportedly prompted Wylde to pursue a heavier direction for the band’s music thereafter. Sonic Brew was finally released on May 4, 1999 with a standard gloss-printed booklet. Early copies came packed with a free Zakk Wylde guitar pick.

Subsequently the Johnnie Walker whisky company issued a cease and desist order to Wylde on the album cover, which had been designed to look just like a bottle of Johnnie Walker’s Black Label Whisky. The band decided to reissue the album with a different album cover, this time merely the band’s skull logo and as an added incentive, they wanted to record a further bonus track for the fans who wanted to buy this now-third version of the album. Wylde, Ondich, and Mike Inez of Alice In Chains (who alongside Wylde had helped write the original) recorded their cover of Ozzy’s “No More Tears” accordingly.

“Bored To Tears, “Born To Lose” and “No More Tears” were released as promotional singles for the album, though no videos were made.