Slayer’s Tom Araya Says Metallica Tried ‘Too Hard to Be Cool’ with ‘Lulu’

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Slayer frontman Tom Araya says that Metallica‘s polarizing collaboration with Lou Reed on ‘Lulu’ “was a little too much” and claims the band were “trying too hard to be cool.”

As you can imagine, a guy who routinely sings songs named ‘Raining Blood’ and ‘Dead Skin Mask’ doesn’t pull many punches when being interviewed. Tom Araya was recently asked by The Quietus if Slayer would ever do an unconventional collaboration similar to the Lou Reed and Metallica disc ‘Lulu.’ Much to the delight of Slayer fans, Araya said “I don’t see us doing anything like that.”

“Lou Reed of all people, you know? He’s just so avant guarde, so out there, so musically different. He was his own thing,” Tom said of the unlikely pairing. “He was his own mold. And for them to try to… I don’t know, when I found out about that, I thought that it was a little too much.”

Araya further admitted that he hasn’t listened to ‘Lulu,’ but explains that he has no desire to give it a spin anytime soon. “I don’t want to [listen to it]. To me, it’s like, I hate to say this, but it’s trying too hard to be cool. I think what [Lou Reed] does is amazing, but it’s Metallica trying to be too cool…Why do you need to be too cool? That’s on Metallica, that’s not on Lou Reed. He’s awesome… And they’re going to hate it if they read this, they’re going to hate me saying it, but it’s just my personal opinion.”

Slayer will enter the studio next month to record their 12th album and the follow-up to 2009′s ‘World Painted Blood.” Guitarist Kerry King recently reassured fans that they won’t be making a Metallica-esque shifts in direction. “The songs are shaping up in the classic Slayer style. You won’t be hearing us doing acoustic stuff.”

Source: Loudwire.com