We have identified a metal-strong [logN(Zn+)>=13.15 or logN(Si^+^)>=15.95] damped Ly{alpha} (MSDLA) population from an automated quasar (QSO) absorber search in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 3 quasar sample and find that MSDLAs comprise >>5% of the entire DLA population with z_abs_>=2.2 found in QSO sight lines with r<19.5. We have also acquired 27 Keck ESI (Echellete Spectrograph and Imager) follow-up spectra of metal strong candidates in order to evaluate our automated technique and examine the MSDLA candidates at higher resolution.