Buckethead, the masked and, yes, head-bucketed guitar whiz, is probably best recognized by passing music fans as a onetime member of Guns N' Roses during some of Axl Rose's craziest years. But that was definitely the closest to mainstream fare that the shadowy figure born Brian Patrick Carroll ever got. As a solo artist, Buckethead first made waves in the player's player world of guitar magazines as a teenaged, basement-dwelling virtuoso and arpeggio slayer. And though he started playing with bands, over the years, Buckethead's sounds drifted further and further into outer space. His collection of solo albums is brazenly avant-garde, rooted sometimes, somewhere in metal — more or less — but more often flying closer to experimental jazz territory. Though it's not always clear where the song part is in a Buckethead song, he never fails to dazzle fans with technical skill and ballsy musical risk-taking.