Metallica drummer Lars Ulrich has spoken about the band’s surprise at the overwhelmingly negative reaction they received to their collaboration album with Lou Reed, Lulu.

Speaking to Spin, Ulrich said that the band all knew the project would be “difficult to embrace”, but that the bile the record received took them all by surprise.

Speaking about this, he said: “It was more spiteful than anyone was prepared for. Especially against Lou. He is such a sweet man. But when Metallica do impulsive riffing and Lou Reed is reciting abstract poetry about German bohemians from 150 years ago, it can be difficult to embrace.”

Ulrich also spoke about a disagreement he had with Reed over his decision to include the line ”I swallow your sharpest cutter / Like a colored man’s dick” on the album and joked that Reed challenged him to a street fight to settle their dispute.

He said of this: “One time I had to point something out to him about how things were functioning in the outside world and he got hot and bothered. He challenged me to a street fight, which is a pretty daunting proposition because he’s an expert in martial arts and is never too far from a sword. The good thing about me is I can do the 100-meter dash faster than most other 48-year-old musicians.”

Metallica will play a headline slot at this summer’s Download Festival as well as a series of other large European shows.