Metallica and Lou Reed recorded an album together

Not a headline I ever imagined writing as I grumpily listened to And Justice For All... for the thousandth time in high school. (I'm not sure I knew who Lou Reed was.) But, yes, Metallica has recorded an album with Lou Reed, after playing "Sweet Jane" with the downtown legend at a 2009 Rock and Roll Hall of Fame event.

The album has no release date, but Rolling Stone says it sounds like "a raging union of [Reed's] 1973 noir classic, Berlin, and Metallica's '86 crusher, Master of Puppets.
" (With all due respect to David Fricke, imagining what that sounds like is not as easy as imagining that David Fricke hasn't listened to Master of Puppets in a while.)

As a fan of both artists, I can't see this being a natural pairing. Reed likes a groove, and Metallica was always better at thrashing than grooving. When they try to groove, they make generic blues-rock records like Load, and Lars Ulrich has never really managed to swing a beat.

Regardless, this is interesting news, and maybe not actually that surprising coming from two artists who've long strived to challenge rock and metal orthodoxy. Next up, the long-awaited collaboration from Anthrax and... oh, Tina Turner?