For all their fame and fortune, the guys of Metallica still seem like they’d be down-to-earth, cool guys in a jam session. Now, Velvet Underground frontman Lou Reed is the one wholeheartedly enjoying his time swapping licks with Metallica.

The latest word on this team-up has Dutch photographer, music video and film director Anton Corbijn, who has worked with Metallica on several previous albums, taking the soon-to-be illustrious photo for the cover art of their forthcoming collaborative album.

According to the Swedish newspaper Aftonbladet (via Blabbermouth), Corbijn and Reed were killing some time with Metallica this past weekend in Gothenburg, Sweden, where the band performed as part of a “Big Four” concert at the Ullevi stadium. Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett and bassist Robert Trujillo also showed up at last night’s (July 10) Lou Reed concert at Grand Rex in Paris, France, to show their support.

"A marriage made in heaven," Reed told Rolling Stone of his partnership with the heavy metallers. "I knew it from the first day we played together: 'Oh, man, this is perfection, right in front of me.' "

Drummer Lars Ulrich added the band has never “felt this free.”

“There's nothing that's totally outside of the boundary for us, nothing that feels like 'Oh, what happens if we go there?' The strength of us is it feels like we cannot land on a wrong place,” he said.

It’s such a love fest with these guys, huh?

What do you think the cover of Metallica and Lou Reed’s album will sport? A tough-guy, metal-apropos photo of the bunch? Candid shots? Somewhere in-between?

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