5 Times Metallica Were The Best Band In The World (& 5 Times They Were The Worst)

10. WORST: Lulu

The announcement that Metallica would be collaborating with Lou Reed was met with confusion and hopeful optimism from fans. But if they thought St. Anger was bad, Metallica were ready to say '"hold my beer" and double down for a whole new album.

A concept album based on two plays by nineteenth-century German playwright Frank Wedekind - because, why not, right? - Lulu hit shelves and pummelled ears in 2011.

"Bad karaoke" doesn't even begin to do the vocals justice, as Lou Reed adopts a spoken and shouted approach to his singing throughout. Metallica's musicianship is competent, churning out riffs that would not have sounded out of place on 2008's Death Magnetic; but mired in abstract, ambient and off-tempo orchestral sounds and buried under Reed's 'singing', this is not enough to save the record.

Ultimately, it feels like everyone was too polite to tell Mr. Perfect Day that he wasn't pulling his weight and, by the time Metallica realised just how bad things were, they had gone too far to turn back.