Unlikely bedfellows Lou Reed & Metallica have unveiled the cover art for their upcoming collaboration album entitled Lulu. The artwork features a naked female mannequin torso, with human head and missing arms. The title for the album also appears to be written in blood across the cover.

Perhaps a departure for the more subtle Reed, this is more of the norm for Metallica who in 1996 released Load which featured the work ‘Semen and Blood III’ of photographer Andres Serrano. He created the photo by mixing his own semen with bull blood between sheets of plexiglass. On their follow up Reload, they featured Andres Serrano’s work again using the piece “Piss and Blood”. We think you can use your imagination for that one.

Lulu is slated for release on 1st November in the US and 31st October in the UK. It is co-produced by Reed, Metallica, Hal Willner (who has previously worked with Reed), Marianne Faithfull, Laurie Anderson, and Gred Fidelman who also mixed the record.

Could this be a contender for some of the worst cover art of all time? Why not check out some other truly awful album covers here, and part 2.

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