Cold

Rock group

For the Record…

Selected discography

Sources

The 1998 self-titled debut album for the hard-core rock group Cold was only in stores for two months before Universal Music Group subsumed A&M Records, the label to which Cold was signed. With its sophomore album, 13 Ways to Bleed on Stage, the group received a second opportunity to warm up to rock fans. “I’m glad we got to make another record. It’s kind of a bummer that it took so long and we had to do it again. At least, out of all the bands on A&M, we lasted. At least we were privileged enough to get another deal,” lead vocalist Scooter Ward told Contemporary Musicians.

An early incarnation of Cold formed during the mid 1980s when Ward and drummer Sam McCandless met at a Jacksonville, Florida-area high school. They performed with several garage bands before being introduced to bassist Jeremy Marshall and guitarist Matt Laughren. When they were in their early twenties, the quartet, dubbed Grundig, moved to Atlanta, Georgia, where there were more clubs in which to play. Ward told Rolling Stone magazine that Grundig didn’t further its career in Atlanta as it had hoped. “Atlanta was into R.E.M.-ish stuff. We’d play on the outskirts of town, sometimes for two people.” Laughren eventually left Grundig and was replaced by Kelley Hayes, who answered a “guitarist wanted” ad in a newspaper. Hayes did not audition for the part. Instead, he took the group to a nightclub. Grundig was impressed by the fact that Hayes knew the majority of the people in the club, and he was hired. Frustrated with the musical orientation of Atlanta, Ward quit the group. His discontent would help to drive the songs on Cold’s debut album.

After reconciling with the group, Ward and the band returned to Jacksonville in 1996 and soon thereafter met fellow local musician Fred Durst of the rock group Limp Bizkit, who was interested in covering a Grundig song. Ward visited Durst’s home to perform a series of songs on an acoustic guitar. Impressed with Ward’s abilities, Durst signed him and Grundig to his Flip label and recruited Ross Robinson to produce the record. Robinson’s credits include Korn, Slipknot, and Limp Bizkit. “Ross is, to me, the best metal producer you can get. He just drags the heaviness out of everything, like with Slipknot. It’s amazing what he does. When you record with Ross one time, you gotta give it your all. You have to go off like you would onstage,” Ward told Contemporary Musicians. During the recording process, Ward learned that German stereo manufacturer Grundig was trying to sue him and the band for $300,000 over use of its name. “I thought, what are you talking about? We don’t have any money. Everybody was throwing names around. Wes (Borland), the Limp Bizkit guitarist, said he had a great idea: Cold. It was the perfect name. It fits the music,” Ward told Contemporary Musicians.

The eponymous debut album, filled with references to drug addiction and aliens, was released on June 2, 1998, on A&M Records. In a review for MTV Online, Bryan Reesman wrote that the album’s “strong nod to the Seattle sound of the early ’90s is quite prominent—there’s plenty of detuned guitars, throbbing bass, and an overall dominating dissonance.” European media raved about the record. According to Cold’s official A&M Records biography, the German magazine Kerrang notes, “There’s nothing better than slapping a debut album on the deck and finding yourself swamped by an excitingly alien new sound…. Cold songs are evil. They crawl under your scalp and build a nest.” Doug Reese of Billboard noted that “the gritty yowl of Ward’s vocals, in addition to some full-of-pain lyrics, complement Cold’s sludgy instrumentation.”

To push the record, Cold toured with Soulfly, The Urge, and Gravity Kills throughout the United States. Two months after the release of Cold, A&M stopped promoting the album after Universal Music Group took over A&M Records and Flip. In 1999, Cold re-signed with Interscope and the affiliate label Flip. Later that year, Cold returned to the studio with producer Adam Kasper in Seattle, Washington, to work on what was to become 13 Ways to Bleed on Stage. The songs were written in Los Angeles and Jacksonville, however Ward was influenced by his surroundings in Seattle, namely the World Trade Organization riots. “It was on the same street as the studio. Everyday, we would go into the studio and right outside the window was the police riot bus. There were smoke bombs going off. We would

For the Record…

Members include Terry Balsamo (joined group, 1999), guitar; Kelley Hayes (replaced Matt Laughren), guitar; Matt Laughren (left group, early 1990s), guitar; Jeremy Marshall, bass; Sam Mc-Candless, drums; Scooter Ward, lead vocals.

Formed group in Jacksonville, FL, 1987; signed with A&M/Flip Records, 1996; released debut album Cold, 1998; signed with Geffen/Flip/Interscope Records, 1999; released 13 Ways to Bleed on Stage, 2000.

Addresses: Record company —Geffen/Flip/Interscope Records, 2220 Colorado Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90404; 825 Eighth Avenue, 29th Floor, New York, NY 10019. Website — Cold Official Website: http://www.coldonline.com.

just stand at the door all day and watch,” Ward told Contemporary Musicians.

For 13 Ways to Bleed on Stage, Cold called in former Limp Bizkit member Terry Balsamo to play guitar in mid 1999. On Cold and onstage, Ward had played guitar parts, but with 13 Ways to Bleed on Stage, he wanted to concentrate solely on vocals. “With a guitar around, I wasn’t as personal with the crowd as I wanted to be. I wanted more energy and intimacy. I can concentrate more on vocals and performance now,” Ward explained in his record company biography.

Besides Kasper, who had worked in the studio with the Foo Fighters and Nirvana, Cold asked Durst and Chris Vrenna, formerly of Nine Inch Nails, to produce as well. “We wanted programming, but not too computer sounding because we’re an organic band,” Marshall said in the group’s A&M biography. Vrenna agreed, adding subtle electronic touches to 13 Ways to Bleed on Stage which contradict heavy guitars and angst-ridden lyrics with piano and melodies. Fellow Flip artist Aaron Lewis, lead singer for the band Staind, made vocal appearances on the songs “Send in the Clowns” and “Bleed.” Cold previewed the new songs while on the road with the Tattoo the Earth tour and Limp Bizkit in the summer of 2000.

Selected discography

Cold (includes “Around the World”), A&M, 1996; Geffen/Flip/Interscope, 2001.

13 Ways to Bleed on Stage (includes “Send in the Clowns” and “Bleed”), Geffen/Flip/Interscope, 2000.

Sources

Periodicals

Billboard, November 1, 1997, p. 12.

Rolling Stone, July 19, 2001, p. 26.

Online

MTV Online, http://www.mtv.com/bands/cold/263791/album.jhtml (July 25, 2001).

Additional information was provided by A&M publicity materials, 1998, Interscope publicity materials, 2000, and an interview with Scooter Ward on June 29, 2001.

—Christina Fuoco

cold / kōld/ • adj. 1. of or at a low or relatively low temperature, esp. when compared with the human body: a freezing cold day. ∎  (of food or drink) served or consumed without being heated or after cooling. ∎  (of an engine) not having been warmed up properly. ∎  (of a person) feeling uncomfortably cold: she was cold, and I put some more wood on the fire. ∎  feeling or characterized by fear or horror: a cold shiver of fear. ∎  inf. unconscious: she was out cold. ∎  dead.2. lacking affection or warmth of feeling; unemotional: cold politeness. ∎  not affected by emotion; objective: cold statistics. ∎  sexually unresponsive; frigid. ∎  depressing or dispiriting; not suggestive of warmth: the cold, impersonal barrack-room. ∎  (of a color) containing pale blue or gray. ∎  ineffective in playing a game: Butler capitalized on Xavier's cold shooting.3. (of the scent or trail of a hunted person or animal) no longer fresh and easy to follow: the trail went cold. ∎  (in children's games) far from finding or guessing what is sought, as opposed to warm or nearing success.4. without preparation or rehearsal; unawares: going into the test cold.• n. 1. a low temperature, esp. in the atmosphere; cold weather; a cold environment: my teeth chattered with the cold they nearly died of cold.2. a common viral infection in which the mucous membrane of the nose and throat becomes inflamed, typically causing running at the nose, sneezing, a sore throat, and other similar symptoms.• adv. inf. completely; entirely: she knew world capitals cold by age nine.PHRASES: catch (or take) cold become infected with a cold.cold comfort poor or inadequate consolation.cold feet loss of nerve or confidence: some investors got cold feet and backed out.the cold shoulder a show of intentional unfriendliness; rejection: why is even his own family giving him the cold shoulder?down coldsee down¹ .in cold blood without feeling or mercy; ruthlessly.out in the cold ignored; neglected: the talks left the French out in the cold.throw (or pour) cold water on be discouraging or negative about.DERIVATIVES: cold·ish / ˈkōldish/ adj.cold·ness / ˈkōl(d)nəs/ n.

cold at a low temperature (literally and figuratively, see in cold blood below).
cold comfort poor or inadequate consolation, with reference to a traditional view that charity is often given in a perfunctory or uncaring way. Cold Comfort Farm is the title of a novel (1932) by Stella Gibbons, which depicts the fated, poverty-stricken, and generally uncomfortable rural lives of the Starkadder family and their matriarch, Aunt Ada Doom (see also something nasty in the woodshed); the book was written as a parody of the work of such regional writers as Mary Webb (1881–1927).
cold dark matter matter consisting of massive particles of low energy, which is believed by some scientists to exist in the universe but which has not yet been directly observed.
cold deck in North American usage, a deck of cards which has been dishonestly arranged beforehand.
cold fusion nuclear fusion occurring at or close to room temperature. Claims for its discovery in 1989 are generally held to have been mistaken.
cold hands, warm heart outward signs may contradict the inward reality; saying recorded from the early 20th century.
the cold shoulder a show of intentional unfriendliness; rejection.
cold steel weapons such as swords or knives collectively.
cold turkey the abrupt and complete cessation of taking a drug to which one is addicted; the phrase derives from one of the symptoms, the development of ‘goose-flesh’ on the skin from a sudden chill, caused by this.
Cold War a state of political hostility existing between the Soviet bloc countries and the Western powers after the Second World War, characterized by threats, violent propaganda, subversive activities, and other measures short of open warfare.
in cold blood without feeling or mercy, ruthlessly. According to medieval physiology, blood was naturally hot, so this phrase refers to an unnatural state in which someone can do a (hot-blooded) deed of passion or violence without the normal heating of the blood.
in the cold light of day when one has had time to consider a situation objectively. The idea that ideas and enthusiasms may seem less appealing when examined thus is quite long established; in Thomas Hardy's Jude the Obscure (1895), Sue says ruefully, ‘Things seem so different in the cold light of morning, don't they?’

See also cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey.

90. Cold

See also 85. CLIMATE ; 200. HEAT

algidity

coldness. —algid , adj.

cheimaphobia, cheimatophobia

an abnormal fear or dislike of cold.

cryogenics

the branch of physics that studies the production and effects of very low temperatures. —cryogenic , adj.

cryology

1. the study of snow and ice.

2. the science of refrigeration.

cryometer

a thermometer for measuring very low temperatures.

cryometry

the measurement of extremely low temperatures, by means of a cryometer. —cryometric , adj.

cryophilia

Biology. a preference for low temperatures. —cryophile , n. —cryophilic , adj.

cryophobia

an abnormal fear of ice or frost.

cryoscopy

the study of the freezing points of fluids.

cryosurgery

a surgical technique using freezing to destroy tissue.

gelidity

the state or condition of being extremely cold. —gelid , adj.

horripilation

the raising of the hairs on the skin as a response to cold or fear; goose bumps or goose pimples.

lyophilization

a process for preserving substances such as blood or serum by freeze-drying in a high vacuum.

psychroesthesia

an abnormal condition in which part of the body, though warm, feels cold.

psychrophobia

an abnormal fear of the cold.

rhigosis

a feeling or sensation of coldness.

cold. OE (Angl.) cald (WS. ċeald) = OS. cald, (O)HG. kalt, ON. kaldr, Goth. kalds :- Gmc. *kaldaz prop. chilled, frozen; formation with ppl. suffix (= L. -tus. Gr. -tos) on *kal- :- IE. *gol-, var. of *gel-, as in L. gelu frost, gelidus GELID, Lith. gelumà severe cold, OSl. golotī ice; see CHILL, COOL, and CONGEAL.