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[MUSIC] THE SAVAGE ANIMAL
"First Impression of Cold" |
06.20.12 |
BY MIKEY MIGO
Cold was always a band that I heard people speak fondly of, but I never really had a connection with. I can sort of think of a melody of one of their singles, but I’m sure I’ve heard more. It’s just not a band that has really crossed my path. They’ve played on shows I wanted to check out and they’re a favorite of people I respect the opinion of. I see no reason why I shouldn’t give them a shot.
I’m going check out their five studio albums. I’m sure I’ve heard a song or few in the past, but I didn’t really absorb it. That could mean that it’s not something that grabbed me or it could mean it’s something I missed out on. Regardless, I’m going to be open minded and hope for the best…
Cold
(1998 – 67 minutes) - The first track of the first album is "Go Away”, a single. It has a slow build up to a droney-screaming chorus. It sounds vaguely familiar. It sounds like a lot of numetal-ish music from that time period. The other single on the album is the next track "Give". Nothing special here at all. The vocals remind me of Gavin Rosdale and a few others. Already I’m a bit tentative about the rest of this experience. Things just seemed a little watered down and radio-friendly. Almost “Seether”-like… That’s never a good thing. "Ugly" is an airy down tempo track. It’s got a good acoustic melody and distant and echoed vocals. It’s a solid moody track. The break at about two minutes in is really interesting and cool. Just like that, I’m back to being a little optimistic about the band. The melody and composition of "Everyone Dies" is pretty different. "Strip Her Down" starts off as an acoustic track, but eventually breaks into a really full sounding wall of distorted melody. It’s border-line trippy. They seem to have a knack for that. I’m curious to how that evolves as we move forward into their work. Despite the length, that should have been a single. "Insane" is just too muddy to get into. The distortion, feedback, and programming make it hard to absorb what’s going on. "Goodbye Cruel World" starts off with a bad ass drum into to signify this track is going to be bad ass. It’s not that bad ass. The music is like a droney/overly used reverb punk song. The vocals stay in the nasally baritone “Sponge”-sounding range. I’m worried there are limitations in the vocalist’s emotional range. This far in I’m mainly impressed with music over anything. "Serial Killer" just feels flat. They use a lot of layers and programming, but nothing really stands out as anything worth getting into. "Superstar" starts off more down tempo with a stripped down, but still sonically enhanced build up. The buildup never really paid off. Sad. What the hell is up with "The Switch"? This song just jumps into something without getting us ready for it. It’s a solid rock song, but nothing that I’ll remember the melody or even title to when I wake up. "Makes Her Sick" is one of the better tracks on the album. Sadly, the last album on the track is the first track I found myself nodding my head along to. That’s one album down. I’m not going to lie and I think it’s obvious. I was not impressed with this album. Nothing about it is connected with me and nothing about it will be remembered. They do that baritone/Lurch sounding “spoken word” thing in a lot of the songs. Corey Taylor is one of the only people in metal that seems to make that work. It’s not bad, but it just jars me a little from the track as opposed to complimenting it. The vocals are too restrained. If I don’t feel that the singer is connected then why should I? It felt like I was listening to Scott Stapp, Aaron Lewis, or a little bit of Gavin Rossdale in terms of the vocal style. Those guys, like it or not, have more emotion to their words than this dude. It’s not that he’s bad or anything, but on this album you can clearly tell that the music takes risks and tries new things but the vocals are bland and boring. This album did not work for me. I tried. I’m pretty sure “1998 me” wouldn’t have liked it either. I take some comfort in knowing the band’s more successful work is still ahead…
13 Ways to Bleed on Stage
(2000 – 49 minutes) - The band’s second album starts off with "Just Got Wicked". You can tell it’s a step or two forward for the band. From the title, I thought I’d know the song, but I have no recollection of this song at all. It’s a solid rock track, better than their last stuff for sure. The music is cool on "She Said". I like the bounce of the melody. The opening notes of "No One" are familiar. I DO recall this song. I didn’t know this was Cold. It’s one of the bands better tracks. It’s got a more accessible melody and the vocals have a bit more exaggeration to them. I feel like I’ve heard "End of the World" before too. It sounds a lot like “No One”. To be fair, the next two songs "Confession" and "It's All Good" both came and went without me thinking to myself “I better write something”. “Confession” is lower tempo and just sort of there. “It’s all Good” has some really good music going for it, but the vocals make it hard for me to enjoy it. Ha! "Send in the Clowns" actually features Aaron Lewis. They knew where their bread was buttered early on. That’s discouraging. The song is the same as everything else. It’s post-grunge nu-metal. It’s ‘angsty’ and have an aura of emotion, but I REALLY don’t understand how anyone can connect with this stuff. The layers on "Same Drug" stand out as something kind of cool. The opening bass and build up on "Anti-Love Song" makes you think it’s going to be a good hard rock song. Holy shit… did the vocalist just actually scream and show some anger? I like this. I expected more tracks to be in this realm of things. I appreciate the aggression here. On an album that was draining me, this is a very bright spot. The aggression hangs on a little with "Witch". The programming is cool and I can’t help but getting into the groove of it. The quaint sounds that open "Sick of Man" are interesting and build up to a fairly eerie track. We’re given more cool music in "Outerspace", but the vocals are the same again. That’s starting to be unnerving. I want to enjoy these guys, but it’s like if dead pan comedian Steven Wright did covers of Pink Floyd tracks. Actually… that sounds cooler than this. "Bleed"/”Thirteen” or whatever it’s called now is the last track. It features Aaron Lewis… again. It’s a stripped down acoustic track. I feel like I’ve heard it before, but it could be because it sounds like a lot of things I’ve heard before. At this time they toured with 3 Doors Down for a while, Marilyn Manson for a while, and then Limp Bizkit for a few weeks. Those tours say a lot. They have a “darker edge” to them that I could see Manson fans liking. Their music is WAY MORE in the realm of 3 Doors Down… if 3 Doors Down tried really hard to be “goth”. Was Cold Seether before Seether? To be fair, the last few tracks were better than the rest. Three more albums… I’m hoping for a crazy change up.
Year of the Spider
(2003 – 64 minutes) - Cold’s third album starts off with "Remedy". I thought I knew this song. The verse sounds really familiar, but when the chorus broke I had no idea what’s going on. The band is more polished here. The vocals seem to have a bit more inflection and it only helps. It says that "Suffocate" was a single. I always thought this was a Staind song. It’s better than Staind though, so that’s a plus. "Cure My Tragedy" is a lowfi ballad. The music is really cool, but the vocals make it a generic rock song. "Stupid Girl" might be the band’s most popular track. When I said that I thought I knew “Remedy”, I believe this is the chorus that I was expecting to hear. It’s not bad at all. Rivers Cuomo is credited on it for writing. Weezer! Woo! I know I listened to "Don't Belong", but nothing about it stood out. It was pretty much like your general Top 40 rock song. That continues with "Wasted Years". It’s a sweeping down tempo ballad song. It’s well done and has some nice guitar word about half way in. I’m surprised THIS wasn’t a single. I could have easily heard this on the radio. "Whatever You Became" has a cool bridge in the middle of the song. It had a really interesting strained and echoed vocal thing going on. Little things outside of the norm at this point stand out. "Sad Happy" and
"Rain Song" provided another gap of me listening and just shrugging. I feel like a broken record now. Staind is not a band I want to listen to. Cold is very similar to Staind. I did NOT expect this. If I knew this was what I was getting into I had not picked Cold. The title of the song "The Day Seattle Died" makes it seems a little obvious. It’s about the death of the grunge icons with lyrics like “we could all feel the shotgun hit the floor”. This song is on the tawdry side. It’s cheap and feels so far from being genuine that it’s embarrassing to listen to. "Change the World" and "Black Sunday" is more of the same. The album ends with a 19 minute plus track. The first part is "Kill the Music Industry" and then in 2003 they included a “hidden track” of “Gone Away” tacked on to the end. “Kill the Music Industry” is the most aggressive and best rock song of the band’s entire run so far. I like it a lot, but I think at this point it’s too little too late for me. I’m already aggravated. “Gone Away” is one of the band’s bigger hits. They should have put it on the album as a normal track. What would have been the harm in that? It’s not like the tracks blend into each other like “The Wall” or anything. It sounds like Staind… again. From this point on, I’ll stop with the Staind comparisons. It’s not fair to Cold, who are fine musicians themselves. It’s just this type of music is not what I prefer to listen to. It’s in the same ballpark as a Staind, Seether, 3 Doors Down, Nickelback, and all of those generic bar rock bands. I was under the impression Cold was closer to a Korn, Marilyn Manson, Dope, or even Godhead. I picked the wrong side of the late 90’s on this one. With all due respect, I’m going to just summarize the next two albums instead of talking about every track. I don’t hate these guys or anything. It’s just not for me. I’m still hoping for something to connect to though…
A Different Kind of Pain
(2005 – 43 minutes) - From what I read the band was going through a lot at this time. The singer had some issues both with drugs and his family. He has said the writing was therapeutic. I’m happy for that, but I still didn’t like the album. The music stopped being interesting after around the second album. It sounds like anything and everything else on Top 40 Rock. Not one song on the entire album stood out to me. The band would break up after this record. Don’t fret though… they would return!
Superfiction
(2011 – 46 minutes) - After some solo stuff and a few years away, they got back together and put out a new album. Like the last album, I listened to all of this but I’m not going to waste time with nitpicking every track. I’ll jump the gun on this. The last track, well at least those with bonus tracks, is a cover of Aerosmith’s “Dream On”. How in the hell do you make “Dream On” seem boring? Listen to Cold’s version and find out how! Yeesh! That said, it wasn’t all that painful. I have no problem with saying this album is A LOT better than “A Different Kind of Pain”. It had more to latch on to and surprisingly the vocals had more emphasis and range. The songs were well produced, but still had a sliiiiiiight edge to them. They’re still not for me.
THE VERDICT
(1996 – present) - Sorry, folks. I just couldn’t force myself to put too much into reviewing this band. The first two albums show sparks of creativity and a good place to progress from. Instead of being more experimental and more aggressive, it seems they went the more commercial route. That’s fine. It’s just not for me. I can’t get into bands like this. The vocals aren’t dominating enough to make me care and lead me through the journey. The first two albums were easier to absorb because the music was outstanding, but even that aspect seemed to cop out as thing went on. I’m a product of this band’s “era” and I just didn’t get into it. I tried, I really did. I listened to every LP track Cold has released. They’re clearly not for me…
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