Lou Reed and Metallica – An Unlikely Partnership
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After a summer-long wait, Lou Reed and Metallica have finally unveiled a track from their highly-anticipated collaborative effort Lulu. Originally conceived as a theatrical production inspired by German expressionist writer Frank Wedekind’s set of two plays depicting the rise and fall of a sexually-enticing young dancer at the turn of the century, Lou teamed up with the guys from Metallica to form an unlikely partnership of theatrical poetry and shredding metal.
Doom-ladden and ultra-distorted, The View is still well within the reach of the artist who brought us compositions as diverse as audio feedback symphonies and meditational music. Lou’s trademark spoken word singing is even more prominent than usual and the melody is practically nonexistent. The lyrics, addressing nothing less than the rejection of morality and the subsequent deconstruction of life, coldly resonate through the half-shouted, half-spoken vocals, making the song sound painfully stagnant and unapologetically grim.
For Metallica, The View is a different kind of monster altogether. Demoted to a backing band to Lou’s vision of epic theatre, it sounds as if the heavy metal legends freed themselves of heavy duty headbang-til-you-drop attitude and provided a menacing and almost stoner-like soundtrack, resulting in a slow death march that – although barely listenable – actually fits the atmosphere of the song. If The View offers any indication of what Lulu will sound like, I predict that the unlikely partnership will be especially hard to swallow for numerous Metallica fans who were inflated with new hope and high expectations after their favorite band’s somewhat unexpected return to old thrashing glory with their last album Death Magnetic.
Lulu is released worldwide on October 31st.
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