I'm no fan of Lars, but he is all for music packaging/design.
Whether this is because he is so against illegal downloads and more profit for him is another matter, personally no matter what they put on their covers, they'll still sell millions of units and let's face it they've had some crap artwork throughout their career. (shame Lars didn't have an interest in design back then)
Metallica have gone back to their old sound, St Anger was awful, the new record is actually pretty good.