Lou Reed & Metallica went back to the basics with their soon-to-be-released 'Lulu' collaboration, cutting tracks for the album live in the studio.

Reed reveals in Rolling Stone that on 'Lulu,' "everything is cut live - us staring at each other, playing." Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich compared the experience as being similar to "going back to the garage when you're 15 years old," which led Reed to quip that the band's location was "a very expensive garage."

What will the seemingly odd combination of Lou Reed and Metallica sound like? We got our first full-fledged sampling of that yesterday, when 'The View,' a song from the new album, was released.

As you'll find in our review, 'The View' doesn't really answer a lot of questions. The song is, perhaps unsurprisingly, at its best - although still uneven - when James Hetfield is in his familiar spot behind the microphone, leading the charge with his Metallica bandmates.

And that's exactly where he'll be this December in San Francisco, when the band celebrates their 30th anniversary with a series of bargain-priced, fan-club only shows at the Filmore Auditorium.

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