Cold

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Cold is an American post-grunge band, formed in 1996 in Jacksonville, Florida. With two gold-albums under their belt, Cold has sold over one million records. On November 17, 2006, Ward announced on MySpace that, after a period of uncertainty since that February, the group had decided to disband. In July 2008, it was announced that the original line-up will be reuniting for a tour in early 2009, followed by a highly anticipated new studio album due in January 2010.

History

Beginnings/Self-titled Album

Cold, who at the time were called Grundig, formed in 1996 with the line-up of Scooter Ward (vocals, guitar), Sam McCandless (drums), Jeremy Marshall (bass) and Matt Loughran (guitar). The band, initially based in Jacksonville, moved to Atlanta 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 the band, and they all later returned to Florida.

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 recorded 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, which was released in 1998. The record was a minor success under A&M Records - now an imprint label under Interscope Records.

13 Ways to Bleed on Stage

Following the underground success of Cold, Geffen financed their second album titled 13 Ways to Bleed on Stage, which was released in 2000. Before recording the album, the group recruited local guitarist Terry Balsamo, who played for Limp Bizkit at one point, to take over Scooter's guitar duties. This would allow Scooter to focus more on singing and interact more 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. "Just Got Wicked" was also a surprise hit, being featured in the soundtrack to the game Jet Grind Radio, and helped add to their fan-base.

In April 2002, the band released "Gone Away," a surprisingly moody ballad. The song first appeared on the WWF Tough Enough album and had a successful music video.

Year of the Spider

With the success of 13 Ways to Bleed on Stage, Geffen financed their third major album titled Year of the Spider, which was released in 2003. The album has been to date the band’s most commercially successful album, when it debuted at #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, where it peaked at #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, for reasons unknown, Geffen refused to make the video, or promote the album any further. The stalemate with the label led to frustrations within the band, and in early 2004 Terry Balsamo departed, replacing Ben Moody in Evanescence. Balsamo was later replaced by ex-Darwin's Waiting Room axe-man Eddie Randini.

In 2004, guitarist Kelly Hayes quit the band as well. A week later, Hayes officially confirmed his position as the guitarist in Jacksonville's 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 stayed true to their earlier promise by not financing or promoting the album any further (despite it later being certified gold).

Subsequently, in mid-2004 the band asked to be released from the Geffen label. 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", "Just Got Wicked (Chris Vrenna Remix)", and "Go Away (Chris Vrenna Eye Socket Remix)" 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.

A Different Kind of Pain

By September 2004, the band had added former member Matt Loughran to their ranks and was picked up by Atlantic Records (Lava Records division), where they 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 the loss of their third guitarist in almost a year and parted ways with Edward Rendini for undisclosed reasons. 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 suspected 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 Zach Gilbert. The album debuted at #26 on the Billboard Albums charts, with more than 36,000 copies sold. 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 had a long battle with cancer and the group called "DDC" (Ding Ding CH) has always been there for Ward and made sure he made it through this horrible pain, 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 fiance/mother of his daughter, and the physical abuse of a 14-year-old girl by her own father, and who also had an alcoholic mother (a theme echoed from each of the three previous albums).

On November 17, 2006, a MySpace post announced that Cold had decided to disband permanently. Ward later announced that he and McCandless had started a side-project called The Witch, now known as The Killer and the Star. Since the posting, McCandless has not been mentioned in any subsequent information and Limp Bizkit drummer John Otto has been announced as the session drummer on their forthcoming album. McCandless is now playing drums for the band Carny.

Reunion

On July 25, 2008, a blog written by Ward on The Killer and the Star's MySpace confirmed the rumors of both a b-sides/rarities release and a new Cold album featuring the original line-up, due Fall 2009. In January 2009 Cold officially announced the first dates of its reunion tour on the band's MySpace page.

Cold recently updated their MySpace page to promote their reunion tour. When the page was originally updated, the lineup consisted of Scooter Ward, Sam McCandless, Jeremy Marshall, Kelly Hayes & Terry Balsamo. Hayes, however, decided not to tour and was replaced by Joe Bennett, who parted ways with Cold in July 2009 and has been replaced by former-Cold guitarist Zach Gilbert.

According to the band, recording sessions for the new album, tentatively titled Epic, have come to an end, with a projected release date of January 2010. This will be followed by a full U.S. tour. Cold is currently co-headlining a U.S. tour with Taproot.

Although initially dubbed the "final album," Ward has said on "Alternative Addiction" that Cold will continue to record and tour after the 5th album comes out.

Epic

On November 1st, Cold added a brand new song titled "My Religion" to their MySpace. The track will be featured on their 5th album, which is tentatively titled "Epic" and is currently being mastered with a Spring 2010 release date.

Band members

Current

• Scooter Ward – vocals, keys, guitar (1996-2006, 2009-present)
• Terry Balsamo - guitar (1999-2004, 2009-present)
• Zach Gilbert - guitar (2005-2006, 2009-present)
• Jeremy Marshall – bass (1996-2006, 2009-present)
• Sam McCandless – drums (1996-2006, 2009-present)

Touring

• Michael Harris - guitar (fill-in for Terry)

Previous

• Matt Loughran - guitar (Played in Grundig and in Cold from 2004-2006)
• Joe Bennett - guitar (2009 tour only)
• Mike Booth - guitar (2005 tour only)
• Kelly Hayes – guitar (1996-2004)
• Eddie Rendini - guitar (tour only 2004)
• Sean Lay - guitar (Played in Grundig)

Line-up history

Chart

Discography

Studio albums

EPs

Singles

Music Videos

• "Go Away" (1998)
• "Give" (1998)
• "Just Got Wicked" (2000)
• "No One" (2001)
• "End of the World" (2001)
• "Bleed" (2001)
• "Gone Away" (2002)
• "Stupid Girl" (2003)
• "With My Mind" (2004)
• "Happens All the Time" (2005)

External links

• Official site
• Cold at MySpace
• Cold at Allmusic
• Cold at PureVolume
• Cold Stage (fansite)

Notes