Cold (band)
Cold is an American rock band formed in 1986 in Neptune Beach, Florida. Co-founded by lead singer and rhythm guitarist Scooter Ward, drummer Sam McCandless, bassist Jeremy Marshall, and lead guitarist Matt Loughran, the band has undergone numerous lineup changes with Ward being its only constant member.
In 1997, at the urging of Fred Durst, Flip Records/A&M Records signed Cold to a recording contract. The band's debut album, Cold, sold poorly due to A&M's closure in the months following its release, resulting in the band moving to Geffen Records. Cold found mainstream success with 13 Ways to Bleed on Stage and its follow-up Year of the Spider, which saw the band incorporate influences of post-grunge and alternative rock into their sound; both albums were certified Gold by the RIAA, with the latter reaching number three on the Billboard 200 chart and producing the band's only single to chart on the Billboard Hot 100, "Stupid Girl". However, Cold would soon part ways with Geffen in March 2004 over disputes surrounding the promotion of Year of the Spider, and went through a succession of lineup changes throughout the rest of the year.
Cold signed with Lava Records in July 2004, who released their fourth album, A Different Kind of Pain ; the album's more sombre, downbeat tone alienated fans and subsequently failed to repeat the success of the band's prior albums. After a period of uncertainty, Cold announced their disbandment In November 2006. In July 2008, it was announced that the original line-up would reunite for a tour in early 2009, which later spiralled into a fully fledged reunion. The band have since released two more studio albums; Superfiction in 2011, and their most recent album, The Things We Can't Stop, in 2019.
History
Early history (1986–1998)
Cold, who at the time were called Grundig, formed in 1986 with the line-up of Scooter Ward, Sam McCandless, Jeremy Marshall and Matt Loughran at Fletcher High School in Neptune Beach, Florida. The band played their first gig in 1990 at a club called the Spray. In 1992, the band released an 8-song EP called "Into Everything".Initially based in Jacksonville, Florida, they moved to Atlanta, Georgia, hoping to get a break in the industry. During this time, Matt Loughran left the band and was replaced by Sean Lay, who also left the group. Kelly Hayes then joined, and they all later returned to Florida. Three and a half years later in 1995, Grundig broke up and Ward moved back to Jacksonville, where he, McCandless, Kelly Hayes, and Pat Lally formed the band Diablo. Diablo would only last about three months. At the end of that three-month period, Grundig reformed under the name Cold in 1996.
Self titled album (1998–2000)
Following Cold's progress in the Jacksonville scene was local Fred Durst. Impressed by what he had heard, he invited Ward to record two acoustic tracks, "Check Please" and "Ugly." The two demos were passed on to producer Ross Robinson, who was also impressed by what he had heard, leading the recently renamed Cold to record their debut album titled Cold in 1997.In 1997, Cold was signed to Flip Records, with distribution through the major label A&M Records. Cold was released in 1998, and received positive reviews from critics. However, shortly after its release, A&M folded due to the Universal Music Group–PolyGram merger, resulting in the album's promotion being suddenly cut, which hurt the album's sales greatly; Flip Records' founder, Jordan Schur, described the album as being "a car shut off in midgear", and thus only managed to sell just below 40,000 copies in the US. However, thanks to Schur, Cold avoided being dropped by UMG during the merger, and soon after Flip transferred the band's contract over to Geffen Records, where Schur had just been named president of, in 1999. Regardless of the label's poor promotion of the album, Cold soon opened for Limp Bizkit and Soulfly during a brief European tour in the spring of 1998.
That same year, the band released the Oddity EP. Its cover photo, taken by the wife of McCandless, depicts their pet tarantula named Wednesday, crawling on the face of her doll. The band sought a signature element that fans could remember them by, and Wednesday served as the inspiration; McCandless gave a particularly favorable image of a spider to a friend and tattoo artist who transformed it into what would become Cold's official logo. The drummer would later note, "Our music kind of creeps along like a spider."
''13 Ways to Bleed on Stage'' (2000–2002)
Geffen financed their second album titled 13 Ways to Bleed on Stage, which was released on September 12, 2000. In 1999 before recording the album, the group recruited local guitarist Terry Balsamo, who briefly played for Limp Bizkit. With the new guitar addition Ward was now able to focus more on singing and interacting with the crowd. 13 Ways to Bleed on Stage proved to be Cold's breakthrough album with successful singles in "End of the World" and "No One" frequently played on hard rock radio, with "No One" hitting No. 17 on Mainstream Rock Tracks and No. 13 on Modern Rock Tracks, and the music video being put in heavy rotation on MTV2. The album included guest singer Aaron Lewis from Staind on the songs "Send in the Clowns" and "Bleed" and singer Sierra Swan from Dollshead on "No One" and "Witch". The song "Just Got Wicked" was also a surprise hit, being featured in the soundtrack to the game Jet Grind Radio and hitting No. 25 on Mainstream Rock tracks, which aided in the band's popularity.In April 2002, the band released "Gone Away, "a surprisingly moody ballad. The song first appeared on the WWF Tough Enough 2 album and had a successful music video.
''Year of the Spider'' and split with Geffen (2002–2004)
With the success of 13 Ways to Bleed on Stage, Geffen financed their third major album titled Year of the Spider, which was released on May 13, 2003. The album has been to date the band's most commercially successful album, debuting at No. 3 on the Billboard Album charts, with over 101,000 copies of the album sold in its first week of release. The album's first single, "Stupid Girl," has been the only Cold single to crack the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at No. 87. Following the release of the album's second single "Suffocate" to radio stations, plans were set-forth for a video to accompany the song. However, a music video was not made due to Geffen not giving approval. The stalemate with the label led to frustrations within the band, and in January 2004 Terry Balsamo departed, replacing Ben Moody in Evanescence. Balsamo was later replaced by ex-Darwin's Waiting Room guitarist Eddie Randini, the following month.In April 2004, guitarist Kelly Hayes quit the band as well. A week later, Hayes officially confirmed his position as the guitarist in the Jacksonville hard rock outfit Allele, a move that had been in the works from the time Terry Balsamo left the band. The band made efforts to release another single, "Wasted Years" from Year of the Spider. However, Geffen continued to not support the album any further.
Subsequently, in March 2004, Cold parted ways with Geffen. Around this time, Cold recorded the soundtrack for the video game Psi-Ops: The Mindgate Conspiracy featuring the songs "With My Mind", "Came All the Way" a b-side from Year of the Spider, "Just Got Wicked ", and "Go Away " and embarked on a short tour with Sevendust in support of "With My Mind", the single released from the CD. They also performed at E3 to promote the game; however, the song was never released on any of their albums.
Lava Records, ''A Different Kind of Pain'' and breakup (2004–2006)
In May 2004, it was reported that Cold was considering signing with Lava Records, a division of Atlantic Records, with the band officially signing to the label that July. By September 2004, the band had added former member Matt Loughran and set about recording a new album. The album was to be produced by Elvis Baskette and slated to be released in December 2004. However, Cold suffered another blow with Eddie Rendini leaving the band on November 14, 2004. The new album was scheduled to be released in spring of 2005. Before releasing the album, Cold went back in the studio to record several more tracks. The album was originally to be titled And a Sad Song Lives On but was later changed to The Calm that Killed the Storm, and the release date was moved to September 13, 2005.In June 2005, the band's official website noted yet another change to the new album's title, changing it to A Different Kind of Pain. "Happens All the Time" was the first single and video released. Just prior to shooting the video, the band added Las Vegas guitarist Mike Booth to the band. He would appear in the video and tour with them for a few months, being replaced later that fall by Florida-native Zac Gilbert. The album debuted at No. 26 on the Billboard Albums charts with more than 36,000 copies sold. A Different Kind of Pain was the beginning of a significant departure from the more radio-friendly alternative metal sound that was featured in the prior two albums. The title track was released as the second single, but Atlantic did not fund another video. The majority of A Different Kind of Pain was written in Ward's sister's bedroom while she battled cancer, and is said to have been the root of the subject matter on the album. Other subjects include the end of his relationship to his fiancée/mother of his daughter, and the physical abuse of a 14-year-old girl by her own father, and also had an alcoholic mother. The album has sold over 160,000 copies in the US.
On November 17, 2006, a MySpace post announced that Cold had decided to disband permanently. Ward announced that he and Sam McCandless had started a side-project called The Witch, later known as When November Falls and now known as The Killer and the Star. Shortly after forming, McCandless left the project.