Noise-rock pioneers collaborate on project inspired by German playwright in what Reed called a 'marriage made in heaven'
Two noise-rock pioneers of different generations have come together in one unlikely collaboration, with Metallica's announcement that last week they finished recording an album with Lou Reed. The 10-song collection was inspired by the work of German expressionist playwright Frank Wedekind. "I told Lou I want to be there when people hear it," Metallica's James Hetfield told Rolling Stone. "I want to see their faces."
The Metallica-Reed team-up does not yet have a name or a release date. But the tracks came together with "lightning speed" at Metallica's San Francisco studio over the past few months, the band said on their website. Reed told Rolling Stone the collaboration was: "A marriage made in heaven, I knew it from the first day we played together: 'Oh, man, this is perfection, right in front of me.'"
The acts first collaborated in October 2009, at the 25th anniversary of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Metallica backed Reed for performances of Velvet Underground classics Sweet Jane and White Light/White Heat. "We knew from then," Reed said, "that we were made for each other."
Originally the plan was to record an album of old Reed songs, "fallen jewels that no one remembered", but Reed changed his mind at the last minute, suggesting instead they work on tracks he had composed for a Berlin production of Lulu, a play based on stories by Wedekind. "[Drummer] Lars [Ulrich] and I listened to the stuff," Hetfield told Rolling Stone, "and it was like: 'Wow, this is very different.' It was scary at first, because the music was so open. But then I thought: 'This could go anywhere.'" Bassist Robert Trujillo said writing arrangements that evoked both the speed-metal of Metallica's 1986 album Master of Puppets and the darkness of Reed's 1973 album Berlin had made them a better band.
Neither Reed nor Metallica are currently signed to a record deal, setting the stage for their collaboration to have an independent release. "I don't think we've ever felt this free," Ulrich admitted. "There's nothing that's totally outside of the boundary for us, nothing that feels like 'Oh, what happens if we go there?' ? It feels like we cannot land on a wrong place."
Metallica headline the Sonisphere festival at Knebworth Park on 8 July.
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