I'm playing a Damage Control Solid Metal through a clean solid state amp, and it sounds really good, especially when it's LOUD. It's definitely worth a try. It makes the EH Metal Muff sound thin. The only down side is that ven at minimum gain, it's still a bit ballsy, so it's not the most versatile.
The EMMA ReezaFRATzitz has a really nice musical distortion - slightly more rock than metal, but impressive. The Visual Sound Jekyll & Hyde has a great metal distortion on the Hyde side too. If you can find them, it would be worth trying both of these out.
Lastly the Blackstar HT Dist-X has had some great reviews. I remember not being particularly impressed with the sound samples that accompanied the Guitarist review, but everyone's taste is different and they were only demoing one possible setting. I'm going to see if I can try on out today.
For the record, I also had a VOX Bulldog - I think this would be best suited in front of a sympathetic valve amp, rather than as a full-on pre-amp in front of a clean sound. (Effectively the way I'm using my amp currently is as a power amp, with the Solid Metal acting as a pre-amp. The amp's EQ controls end up as further post-preamp tone shaping.)
Good luck.