Cold

Cold formed in 1986 in Neptune Beach, Florida, when high school students Scooter Ward, Sam McCandless, Jeremy Marshall, and Matt Loughran began playing together at Fletcher High School under the name Grundig. Cold, who at the time were called Grundig, formed in 1986 with the line-up of Scooter Ward on vocals and rhythm guitar, Sam McCandless on drums, Jeremy Marshall on bass and Matt Loughran on lead guitar at Fletcher High School in Neptune Beach, Florida. The band played their first gig in 1990 at a club called the Spray. The band later relocated in search of a break before returning home. 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. The group's name change came about after a legal dispute over their original moniker, and it was Limp Bizkit's Wes Borland whose offhand remark gave them their new identity. They changed it after a German stereo manufacturer with that name threatened to sue, and they got their new name when Wes Borland was giving his opinion of the lawsuit, commenting "That's cold." Cold's breakthrough came after Limp Bizkit frontman Fred Durst discovered the band playing locally and passed their demos along to a notable producer. The band caught the attention of Limp Bizkit bandleader Fred Durst, who passed a pair of demos on to producer Ross Robinson, who helmed the group's eponymous debut album, released via Durst's A&M Records imprint Flip in the summer of 1998, and through constant touring the combo earned a devoted following. Their true commercial breakthrough arrived with their sophomore record. Released in 2000 via Geffen/Interscope, 13 Ways to Bleed on Stage became Cold's breakthrough, achieving Gold status via the mainstream rock hits "End of the World," "Just Got Wicked," and "No One." That success carried into their biggest album, 2003's Year of the Spider, which became a genuine chart phenomenon. The album was Cold's most commercially successful, debuting at number three on the Billboard album charts, with over 101,000 copies sold in its first week. Its lead single became the band's signature hit, as "Stupid Girl" served as the album's lead single and was the only Cold single to crack the Billboard Hot 100, where it peaked at number 87, and its music video garnered frequent airplay. During this era the band's key lineup included Ward, McCandless, Marshall, and guitarists Terry Balsamo and Kelly Hayes, both of whom appeared on their two gold-certified breakthrough albums.

Following the Year of the Spider era, Cold endured significant upheaval. Despite Year of the Spider doing well with rock fans, Geffen soured on Cold amid promotion for the album, and being dropped from the label led to internal strife as guitarist Kelly Hayes departed, guitarist Terry Balsamo left to join Evanescence, and drummer Sam McCandless and vocalist Scooter Ward were left facing an illness in Ward's family that made the band's future look bleak, though the band endured. They released a fourth album before splitting, with a special tour celebrating two milestones: 25 years of 13 Ways To Bleed On Stage and 20 years of A Different Kind Of Pain underscoring the record's lasting place in their catalog. By November 2006, Cold had formally split, though a reunion would take place in 2008, and new material would begin to arrive by way of a new album three years later. That album, Superfiction, arrived in 2011, and was followed by their sixth studio effort. Cold set up camp with Napalm Records for their sixth studio long-player, 2019's The Things We Can't Stop. Cold remains active today, continuing to tour behind their catalog of gold-certified records while working on new material. Frontman Scooter Ward has confirmed that work is already underway on the band's seventh full-length effort, the follow-up to 2019's The Things We Can't Stop, with Ward telling an interviewer he expects a new Cold album by the following summer. Ward has remained the band's constant creative force throughout every incarnation, as Scooter Ward is the primary songwriter and the only member that has been part of every lineup . Decades after their emergence from the Jacksonville club scene, Cold is still recognized as one of the defining bands of the early-2000s post-grunge and alternative metal movement, having sold well over a million records in the United States alone.

Cold's raw, atmospheric live shows made them a natural subject for concert photography during their most prolific touring years, and that legacy is well represented in this archive. Wayne Dennon photographed the band four times between 2003 and 2005, capturing them across three different cities in two states during the height of their Year of the Spider and A Different Kind of Pain touring cycles. Those performances live on in 128 photographs preserved here, images that have drawn nearly 100,000 views from archive visitors revisiting Cold's early-2000s heyday through Wayne