*
Put Lou Reed and Metallica in the same room and you have the “ingredients for a great record,” said Scott McLennan in The Boston Globe. Unfortunately, “the godfather of avant-rock and the popular metal band don’t click on any level” here, resulting in a “disappointing mess.” After Reed and Metallica performed together at a 2009 awards show, Reed wanted more from the collaboration than to merely re-record some of his old work and so wrote a series of song lyrics inspired by an early-1900s German play. But Reed deserves only so much credit for refusing to make this a nostalgia effort, said Thomas Conner in the Chicago Sun-Times. As Metallica “grinds away joylessly” at monotonous riffs, Reed applies his “thin, monotone voice” to some “god-awful poetry.” Its “vivid descriptions of spurting blood and murder” are meant to shock, but the “leaden nihilism drags down every track.”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
-
Georgia's new foreign influence billUnder the Radar Critics claim the 'Russian law' could stifle dissent and wreck the country's chances of joining the EU
-
'Making a police state out of the liberal university'Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
-
8 looming climate tipping points that imperil our planetThe Explainer New reports detail the thresholds we may be close to crossing
