One Man Bands

One man bands are great. They showcase how much talent a single person has without any crappy musicians to take away from it. They are just such a good way to show how much better someone is than everyone else.

I mean, just look at this guy!

Old Man's Child was one of the bands I listened to when I was just getting in to black metal. It is currently the side-project of Galder (from Dimmu Borgir), who is the only current member. OMC started off as a full band, but everyone left when they realized the name was too long. Galder decided to keep is alive and make an album every so often. He does the vocals and plays all the instruments, except for drums. Guy can't be expected to do everything, right? He brings in a different drummer from another band for each album, making OMC close enough to a one man band for me.

It really is a shame though that most one man bands are side projects. It just takes too much time to go back and forth from instrument to instrument. Even if the drummer in your band can only play the high-hat and snare, it's easier to yell at him than to play it yourself. For some of these bands, like the one posted below, it would be great to hear a new album every couple of years or so. This song is entirely made by a man by the name of Morten Veland.



Some pretty popular bands started out as one man bands. Wintersun was started by Jari Mäenpää as a way of putting together some of his own music. Just look how far that has come. Firewind was also a solo project of Gus G. created for the same reason. Let's not forget Pain, the side project of Peter Tägtgren (the man behind Hypocrisy and one of the biggest producers in extreme metal). Even though these all gained members to become a full band, they still have all the originality and soul of the founding members.

If you want something done right, you have to do it yourself.

-Zombie Viking