After the dawn of Alternative
Rock, dozens of bands began
focusing their negative energy
to create spiteful songs with
crashing guitars and howling,
pain-stricken vocals.
Depression and frustration
became the emotional
conditions of the hour, and the
music scene became glutted
with groups that either fiegned
despair, or were so bleak they
became inextrcably tangled in
their own gloom.
Today, in a era where angst
and volume have become
passe, there are stil a handfull
of bands that choose to
internalize anguish and
regurgitate it as a visceral,
deeply moving melody. One of
those is Jacksonville, Florida's
COLD, but COLD aren't your
average self-immolating
neo-grunge outfit. While
numerous heavy riffing
alternative bands wallow in their
pain, COLD revel in the
dark,celebrating its tense,
inviting grip and embracing its
all-consuming energy. "I'm
happy with the darkness," says
frontman Scoot Ward. "I'vehad a
negative outlook for so long.
And the way I see stuff has
always been bleak, so I've
learned to make that good. I just
like to write songs that express
how I feel."
COLD's self-titled album voices
the band's nihilistic outlook with
lumbering beats, twisting guitar
lines, surging rythms and rough,
raspy vocals. But while the
group is certainly in touch with
its inner hostility, the members
are also aware that beauty and
uglyness need to co-exist in
order to present a balance
equation. "We're influenced by
lots of different stuff, not just
heavy music," says Ward. "We
like Tool and Black Sabbath,
but we also love Radiohead and
even Sarah McLachlan. I was
really into the Cure and
Depeche Mode when I was
growing up, and Sam was really
into Kiss and Sabbath. Our Stuff
is just a mixture of all the things
we like. There's nothing wrong
with melody as long as it's still
got emotion in it."
You can accuse COLD of being
cynical or negative, but noe one
could possibly call them shallow
or unfeeling. Their debut disc
shudders with emotional
revelations as cathatic as primal
scream therapy. From the
disoriented fury of Kelly Hayes'
guitar lines to the heartfelt
hopelessness of Ward's
ravaged howls, COLD is a band
that's not afraid to expose its
true voice. The first single "GO
AWAY," which builds from a
deep, bopping groove to a
churing wall of dispondency, is
a rant against the selfish and
ungrateful. "You look back, and
can't imagine how people can
be like that. But they are."
Other songs on COLD are even
more grim. "Serial Killer," with its
dense, buzzing guitars and
frantic beat, is about a boy who
seeks revenge on a serial killer
who kidnapped him when he
was young, and the omnious
"Everyone Dies," which echoes
with sparse ringing guitars and
spacious vocals, is about
Martians taking over the earth.
The roots of COLD go back to
the mid '80's, when Ward and
drummer Sam McCandless met
in high school and started
jamming. They formed several
garage bands before hooking
up with bassist Jeremy
Marshall. When they turned 21,
the trio moved to Atlanta, where
they abducted guitarist Kelly
Hayes, who fleshed out their
sound. The band name
themselves Grundig, and over
the next three years, booked
numerous gigs throughout the
city. At the time, the group was
playing a more metallic style of
music that didn't sit well with
Ward, so he moved back to
Jacksonville in 1996 and started
writing songs on his own.
Soon after, he met Limp Bizkit's
Fred Durst, who had been a
Gundig fan, and the two
became fast friends. Durst liked
the tunes Wardwas toying with,
and offered to use his home
studio to produce Ward's demo.
Durst played producer Ross
Robinson the tape, and he
immediately offered to produce
a full album. "That turned
everything around for me," says
Ward. "We started playing this
music, and I knew things
werefixing to happen. Within
three months , it all clicked."
With a debut album that has
already been well recieved
across the U.K. and Europe,
and a second tour over seas
planned for May with Max
Cavalera, COLD is well on its
way. Q Magazine exclaimed a 4
star review, "they display guile
and genuine inspiration too
often to be ignored," while
Kerrang offered a 5K/5K review
which noted, "There's nothing
better than slapping a debut
album on the deck and finding
yourself swamped by an exciting
alien new sound...COLD songs
are evil. They crawl under your
scalp and build a nest. Before
you know it, you're
over-run...COLD is the first
brilliant band of the year." The
U.S. market is sure to follow
these sentiments.-June 1998
