Trollheart

I'm a huge Maiden fan, as most know, but I'm also the first to admit Dickinson's solo albums aren't generally up to snuff. What albums by metalheads who have gone solo (either leaving their band or as a side project) do you rate, or not rate?

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Trollheart: Signature-free since April 2018

Frownland

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Studies show that when a given norm is changed in the face of the unchanging, the remaining contradictions will parallel the truth.

MicShazam

Every album Ihsahn has done solo after dismantling Emperor has been good. After, Angl and Eremita are probably my favorites of those.

Adrian Smith from Iron Maiden did a pretty cool one-off album together with the singer from Sikth. Primal Rock Rebellion - Awoken Broken. It's a weird mix of influences, but it's really cool once you get used to the offbeat vocals.

ICS Vortex has done one solo album - Storm Seeker - and it's pretty neat. A very strange mix of black metal, rock and prog influences, with Vortex's trademark odd but hypermelodic vocals all over the place, of course.

Mitch Harris from Napalm Death has done one album so far with his side project Menace and it's got some really interesting, catchy highlights. It's a sort of prog-ish alternative metal hybrid. The album is called Impact velocity.

There's more, but I'm sticking to artists from bands people know about.

Here's some select tracks from some of the mentioned albums:

Ihsahn - Scarab


Primal Rock Rebellion - No Place Like Home


ICS Vortex - Odin's Tree

I've listened to this song more times than anything else remotely BM related.

Menace - Multiple Clarity

I just love this track. Especially loud, with good speakers. The bass really elevates it for me.

The Batlord

I don't rate it particularly high since I don't remember listening to this album besides the title track, and it's not much besides a decent band backing Halford doing his Painkiller thing, but it's still nice from what I remember. Basically exactly what you would have wanted from Rob Halford's solo band, which makes it kind of boring tbh, but the title track is still fun (first track).

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Mondo Bungle

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MicShazam

There was also Dave Mustaine's little mid 90's side experiment, MD.45.

Pretty good album and also rather weird that two versions of it exist: One with Mustaine on vocals and one with some punk guy on vocals. I only have the former. Musically, it didn't really feel so far from Megadeth, but only because Megadeth did all sorts of not exactly thrash or even metal like things during the mid 90's. Most songs on the MD45 album could sit comfortably side by side with most songs on Cryptic Writings.

The Batlord

From what I hear the remastered version featured Mustaine's vocals because they lost the originals with the first vocalist, which I assume means Mustaine is an egomaniac who just couldn't handle an album without his vocals on it, so I'll refuse to listen to it out of spite even though I dig him as a vocalist. But Jesus Christ is he a ****.

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The Batlord

Bleh.

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MicShazam

I always suspected it was an ego thing as well, but you never know with Mustaine. He can be a such a Malmsteen, but the music is too good for me to pass up.

The Batlord

Better with him or without singing? Never heard it. I'd like to hear the first version first tbh.

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