Was thinking about it looking through my last.fm, I got Reverend Kriss Hades and Paul Chain high up there, what are your favourite solo artists, and specifically the ones where the band name is the same as the artist name without additions or alterations.

I'll say "no lists" here even though I haven't said anything about the two aforementioned names yet, I wanted to get the thread started first.

I think I'm gonna have to go with Devin Townsend on this one. Even though he has changed his name so many times:
Devin Townsend's Ocean Machine, Devin Townsend, Devin Townsend Band, Devin Townsend Project.... yeah, it's all the same to me.

Dan Swano is the first one that came to mind, his only solo album Moontower is a really genius marriage between prog rock and death metal. It's a very special album considering he wrote and performed every note on every instrument. Also has some of the deepest, self-reflective and overall most emotional lyrics I've ever read in a metal context, in songs like "In Empty Phrases" and "The Big Sleep".

I've been on a big Danzig kick the past few days so, if that counts, there you go.

Most of my favorite solo artists aren't metal. As for a fully named band/artist combo, nothing beats Dax Riggs for me. Similar to lumping all of Devin Townsend's projects together, I consider all of Dax Riggs or Deadboy & the Elephantmen or even Agents of Oblivion to be in the same head canon, with Acid Bath being less of a Dax thing and more of a full band outlier.

I can't get enough of Jan Hammer either. That man shreds the keytar as well as any tryhard guitar wanker can, and as always his backing musicians masterfully match his genius.

King Diamond is the one that comes to mind for me, in addition to Danzig. Love their early solo records quite a lot.

Well, as a black metal fan I'm certainly listening to a lot of solo projects, but they rarely have the artists' names on them.

Bruce Dickinson comes to mind. Starting off great with a fun hard rock album Tattooed Millionaire, before having a bit of an awkward phase for a couple of albums, and then returning to solid heavy metal for the last 3 full-lengths. I sometimes wonder if The Chemical Wedding represented the final step for this project, or if they could have pushed it further into new ground. We'll never know, as Bruce and Adrian re-joined Maiden.

This one is really obscure, but Gus Drax's solo album In Search of Perfection might be my favorite solo album from a guitarist. He's got a real knack for balancing songwriting and shredding and he can play his ass off. Andy James is another one who writes super catchy riffs and his self-titled is nearly flawless.

I generally don't like solo projects though, particularly when vocalists do it. The music always seems to take a backseat. Of course one exception here is Dio, which is much more of a proper band than a solo project.

Greg Mackintosh from Paradise Lost. Just put on some Hallowed Land and you'll get it!
Also, Danny Cavanagh from Anathema did some exquisite work, particulary on "Flying" from A Natural Disaster album.

I guess for me it's down to Ozzy Osbourne and Dio, even though for both those bands I only really love a couple albums each. Do I prefer the combo of Blizzard of Ozz and Diary of a Madman, or Holy Diver and Master of the Moon? I suppose I'll pick Dio because I've listened to those Dio albums far more than the Ozzy albums.

dude, solo PROJECT/BAND, not guitar solo!

ooops...my bad

Ihsahn comes to my mind. His solo career is a jaw droping.

+1 for the Ozzy and Bruce Dickinson mentions. Particularly Ozzy, who I listened to a lot in my teenage years. I still get a fair bit of mileage out of everything up to and including Down to Earth.

On an Ozzy related note, I'll mention Zakk Wylde, who is on the archives despite his two solo records not being metal. I've said for years he's far better when writing acoustic / piano based stuff, and the two solo albums prove it. The original Book of Shadows is one of my all time favourites.

Axel Rudi Pell has had a pretty solid career. Consistent quality to his output, and the vocalists on his albums are always really good.

Obligatory mention to Alice Cooper, who, despite not being on the archives, tends to get regular mentions around these parts.

Both of Christian Münzner's solo albums are great examples of instrumental guitar mastery. I keep wishing that his work with Eternity's End was as good.

Easy one for me: Mortiis (though solely for his initial era).

Still Ozzy even after all these years for me. I have not bothered with any new material over the last 15 years or so and I don't really care much for any of his full albums after No More Tears, but pretty much everything up through that one is great.

Honorable mentions to King Diamond, Danzig and Ihsahn.

To those of you that mention Danzig, I'd like to contribute the following:

Technically, it would be wrong to consider Danzig a distinct entity, as in contrast to his tenure in The Misfits and Samhain. Technically speaking, his entire career has been one long solo career, he's just been performing under different band names and with different personnel supporting him. Glenn was the founder of all the bands he has been in, and he always wrote all the music, as well as created the image of the different bands he was in. The rest of the people in his different bands have always been the equivalent of hired guns, contributing nothing to songwriting etc., but just doing whatever they were told by him. So technically his entire career has been one long solo-project all along, he just evolved as a musician and songwriter along the way, and performed under different names to signify each change in his evolving style.

hi welcome to the internet, everybody knows this already

Danzig's kind of a weird one cause the eponymous band was probably the first time he was working with musicians who weren't easily replaceable. Which is one of the reasons why he never put out a good record after the 4th Danzig album.

Writing music's one thing (which could mean something like putting together the chord structure and the lyrics) but do you really think that every songwriter out there is structuring the guitar solos and writing the drum fills? Give a good idea to inferior players and you'll get a worse finished product.

Inside the metal sphere it's Paul Chain for me. Really unique artist that has an almost untouchable atmosphere. The wide range of styles and experimentation found within his discography makes for a lot of revisits that do not get stale as well. Has that sort of mad genius quality to it that I love.

Kenn Nardi "Dancing With The Past". Freakin' awesome solo album from the Anacrusis mainman, 28 songs over 2 discs, virtually 3 albums worth of material. A lot to sink ya teeth into, but totally worth it. Long may he continue.

Paul Chain or King Diamond. Paul Chain for the sheer volume of material, and that most of it is of high quality. I could spend days just listening to him and not get bored of it. King Diamond was my first "favorite metal band" and will forever hold a place in my heart.

Reverend Kriss Hades is a solid mention too. I wish he had more material.

Devin Townsend and Bruce Dickinson, for sure. Devy distributes some of that quirky, restless stuff that my ears require from time to time, whereas I grew up with Dickinson's music and I especially love his Skunkworks album, so a nostalgia factor is involved.

Karl Sanders.

Nile is one of my favorite bands and I really enjoy the interludes so hearing a full length expanding on all of that was really a treat for me. Saurian Meditation in particular is awesome, the songs set many different moods, the opener "Awaiting the Vulture", for instance, gives me a middle of the parched desert vibe. The fact that he includes liner notes detailing the genesis of the tunes is really nice too. The follow-up Saurian Exorcisms was good but not as stellar as the debut. Still a solid 8 out of 10 for me.

kollias' solo album was also very good

Probably gonna have to be Dio.

Fuckin props to OP, though. Kriss Hades, Rok and Sadistik Exekution are the shit.

Dio was quite keen on his band not being a solo project. He just used his name for maximum marketing post-Rainbow and Sabbath.

I love all of Bruce Dickinson's albums - even the Tin Machine-esque folly that was Skunkworks - and hope he can do another one without Steve Harris pinching all of his songs beforehand.

Hard one for me, but I think I'll go with Rob Halford

Talked to him on social media once. He has a shit ton more material, he just doesn't release it.