In 1986, the first lineup of Cold was formed under the name "Grundig." The Original line-up featured Scooter handling Guitar and Vocals, Jeremy on Bass, Sam on Drums, and Matt Laughran on lead Guitar. They were all students at Fletcher High School in Jacksonville, Florida. The name Grundig originates from a german audio company. The band played there first gig in 1990 at a Jacksonville Beach Club called The Spray. In 1992 they released an 8 song titled, "Into Everything" which managed to sell 1,000 copies. Later that year the band moved to Atlanta, Georgia. During this time Matt left the band and they picked up guitarist Kelly Hayes.

Because money was tight and gigs weren't as plentiful as they were in Florida, the bands resources were strained. "We lived there for 3 1/2 years, and we found out how cliquish Atlanta is. Everybody is into there own little trends and trying to be cool. They didn't accept us too well, they were more college-oriented, and our music was alot heavier then they were used to." -Scooter Ward

One day, angered toward the scene, the band moved back to Jacksonville, Florida in 1995. Sam, Scooter, Kelly, and Pat Lally formed a band called Diablo(devil), which lasted about 3 months.

While they were playing the scene, Fred Durst of Limp Bizkit fame, decided to lend the band a helping hand. He and his band, also from Jacksonville, had just inked a deal with Flip Records. Flip, in turn had inked a distribution deal through industry heavyweight Interscope Records. Durst knew of Grundig from the local scene, but didn't know that Scooter and Sam were still in a band until he asked for permission to record a version of a Grundig song called "Lil' Bees."

"I called him up and asked him if they were going to record the song, so while we were talking, he asked me what i was doing. I said nothing, so he said, 'Why don't you come over and lay down some tracks tonight?"

That night Ward recorded two songs, "Please" and "Ugly", one of which made it to the final cut for Cold's self-titled record. The next day Sam got a call from Durst.

"When he told us we could get signed, it was like, 'Yeah, right," Sam said. "Then a couple of days later we got a call from him, saying that Ross Robinson(Korn, Limp Bizkit, Slipknot) had heard the tape and had gotten goose bumps. He said that he wanted to record the album as soon as possible. "

The newly re-assembled Grundig(Kelly, Scooter, Sam and Jeremy) took a 6-album record contract from A&M Records and was tentatively set to go on there first official tour to Europe with Soulfly and Limp Bizkit towards the summer of '98. Unfortunatly the band was unable to keep the name Grundig due to the german audio company owning the rights to it. Limp Bizkit guitarist Wes Borlands' response to this was, "Man...that's cold..." on a whim the band called themselves just that.