Was it Still Life? I definitely remember hearing a story like that as well but maybe it was just an odd internet legend.

I think this happened quite a bit with some hair metal bands. I know the guitars on the first two Warrant albums were done by someone else.

Late 80s Sabbath is another. Several of the band members listed on Eternal Idol and Headless Cross didn't play on those albums.

This is a topic that I find really interesting and I'll try and offer some information where I can.

Re: Johnny Kelly and Type O Negative- It's programmed drums from October Rust until Life is Killing Me but Johnny was very much involved in the writing of the drum parts for those albums so he's still credited and according to some interviews Pete Steele wasn't the most interested in the drums so it was up to Josh and Johnny to program the drums. It's kind of a shame too, because I think October Rust is really the only album where the drum programming doesn't negatively affect the album.

With Kerry King playing the guitars on Slayer albums, as far as I'm aware this started with Divine Intervention and continued like this to the end but Jeff was still playing his solos. It's been stated that Jeff had an arthritic condition that started seriously affecting his playing from DI onwards. With regards to Tom's bass playing, I don't think that it's ever been confirmed but I get the feeling that he might never have actually played bass for Slayer in the studio. Nothing confirmed on that but I think that Jeff or Kerry might have been able to lay down the tracks quicker than Tom and those two were always responsible for the riffs anyway.

Johnny Dordevic is well known for this and doesn't sing on Clandestine and I think that he's credited as being the bass player on Dark Recollections but didn't play on this.

Alex Hellid is just playing lead guitar on the first two Entombed records and the rhythms are covered by Uffe (and Nicke too, maybe.)

Terry Butler doesn't play bass on Leprosy, he suffered a bit of "red light fever" in the studio and Chuck had to record the bass. Terry plays on Spiritual Healing though.

I've heard rumours that Necrobutcher doesn't play bass on the Blasphemer era Mayhem albums and that the bass was recorded by Rune himself but that's not confirmed 100% but it would make sense if true.

Michael Amott plays all the rhythm guitars for Arch Enemy, Jeff Walker plays all the rhythm guitars in Carcass.
source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU89j76u7fA 3:10

during the Friedman/Menza era of Megadeth, Dave Mustaine played all the rhythm guitars on all the songs, Marty played all the acoustics.

Marty Friedman has also said in interviews that Jason Becker played all his (Friedman's) solos on the Cacophony albums. this might have been an attempt to big Jason up afterwards, but I thought I'd mention it here

after years of head scratching "how did such an average, uneventful guitarist suddenly come up with such scorching solos?" Bob Kulick admitted that he barely played leads on WASP's Crimson Idol, and it was mostly Doug Aldrich...

the Oliva Brothers have played all the instruments on several songs on the Gutter Ballet and Streets albums.
source: Steve Wacholz interview

Waldemar Sorychta has played a lot of stuff on albums he appears as producer, especially 90s Century Media albums. the Moonspell first albums are well known by now, but there's more...

in a Vandals interview, their guitar player claimed that Josh Freese plays drums on several well known bands' albums, without their drummers knowing

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it varies. both Jeff Waters of Annihilator and Jon Oliva of Savatage have said that they wanted to have full lineups appear on album sleeves as they would go and tour... sometimes its record label or management pressure, fans expectations, could be a few things.

While not metal, Kiss are probably the most notorious for this. Peter Criss didn't play the drums on Dynasty and Unmasked, except for one song (Dirty Living). Anton Fig played all the drums. Ace Frehley didn't play the guitar on Creatures of the Night. I also believe than Gene Simmons didn't play the bass on a lot of the 80's album tracks as well. That's just to name a few among a lot during their career.

I remember reading something, probably an interview, where Dan Swano mentioned producing an album for a Swedish black metal or black metal-adjacent band in the mid 90s, and that one night he just decided to re-record all the drum parts, because he didn't think their drummer was up to scratch. He didn't say what band this was, which was a bit frustrating.
Anyone know?

Aren't the drums on all Manowar albums since "Warriors of the World" machines and not true, organic drums?

Pretty sure the only Manowar album with real drums since Sign of the Hammer is The Triumph of Steel.

Yeah and their "reunion" album Psycho Circus was literally Paul, Gene and a bunch of session members (including future Spaceman Tommy Thayer). Ace and Peter only contributed on one song each and did extra vocals for a third one. They didn't have anything to do with the recording of the rest of the album.

Also, Ace was already out of the band before Creatures even came out, the record company apparently forced them to keep his face om the cover for marketing reasons. Hell, he's even in the video for I Love it Loud even though he was 100% out of the band at that point. Weird stuff, man.

I think he still maintains this. I attended a Vio-lence show some months back and approached him to sign my Fear Factory CD booklets. He signed I everything I brought including Demanufacture.

Which raises a question I always had: do band members sign merch (CD, LP and tape covers/sleeves) on albums they didn't play on? I haven't attempted this as I'm always conscious of only asking for the autographs for the players on those albums.

Maybe it was Bathory? For all I know, he could have been "Vvornth!"

Regarding Nikki Sixx, there was some rumor that a guy named Matt Trippe not only recorded his bass parts in the studio, but actually was a body-double/stand-in for Sixx during a stretch of live shows. I'm naturally skeptical of this last thing, but he very well could have been an actual studio musician who was brought in to record some (or all) of the bass tracks on the albums.

Jason Newsted sure did back in 1993! I had brought with me 5 booklets for the band to sign (I had won a meet and greet pass); First 4 Metallica and Doomsday for the Deceiver, with a plan to give Jason the AJFA and Doomsday booklets (and show him what a special fan I am and all). I had just turned 16. When he came out first, I stood there like a statue, completely blown away that Jason Newsted is standing in front of me (it got worse with Hetfield). I did not say a single word (other than hello), reached like an idiot for my backpocket of my obligatory thrash stretch jeans and without noticing my actions, handed him the first 3 Metallica booklets to sign. He did not pause, simply signed them all and moved on. I was oblivious until I went home many hours later that I had forgotten to give Jason the appropriate booklets (or anyone else for that matter, my AJFA is still signature virgin) and let him know what the first two Flots mean to me.

Moral of the story: He seemed perfectly unphased by the fact I handed him the 3 out of 5 Metallica albums total (at the time) he does not play on. Like he's done it before. Pretty sure he is not the exception.

I wonder if him signing the Cliff era Metallica albums without question had anything to do with the complete impossibility for the ACTUAL full line up to sign it, so he may as well do it.

I see what you mean. But no, it was a band taht recorded at Dan's studio, Unisound, not Heavenshore Garage.