Mike Van Portfleet's vocals suit the music perfectly, but Tara Vanflower gets to shine on "Baltica." I think the song's just about mashing a snowman, but it's beautiful all the same.

Some tracks are more experimental, less coherent than the others. They all have a (slow) beat that reinforces the winter theme. My favorites are "Bare," "Baltica" and "December."

Van Portfleet also has sense enough not put in a lot of filler on "Cold." It only took nine songs to convey the mood, and it's long enough at that.

One star for each song that I REALLY liked. "Cold" is a good expression of Lycia's more melodic haze of sound. If you like "Ionia," you'll like "Cold" and vice versa.


A Gothic LYCIA Winter   December 30, 2001
 3 out of 4 found this review helpful

This CD is one of my favorite CD's. I've been a LYCIA fan for over 6 years. This CD I always play around winter time. The swriling symths the church bells the gothic chior sound and sourrounding ambience make it fell like your in the cold of winter.


awe-inspiring   October 12, 1999
 2 out of 2 found this review helpful

This is one of the most amazing CDs I've had the pleasure of experiencing (yes, it's a full blown emotional experience). It's one of the only discs I've ever come across that holds power and emotion similar to that of The Cure's Disintegration, and also holds the honor of being one of the only discs ever to make me say "wow" out loud the first time listening to it. It is a spellbinding masterpiece with a very fitting title.


A classic winter's tale   May 3, 2000
 1 out of 1 found this review helpful

Similarly to how _A Day In The Stark Corner_ was to _Ionia_, _Cold_ is kind of a natural successor to the previous album, _The Burning Circle And Then Dust_. _Cold_ carries on the crisp sound of "newer" Lycia, with David Galas' brooding basslines and Tara's atmospheric yet spirited vocals rounding out the mix. This is very much a Conceptual album, the one thing about it that's not at all subtle (one glance at the song titles will confirm it). But that's one of the things I like about Lycia; their willingness to stick with a formula that works instead of constantly trying to reinvent themselves. Variations on a theme may sound monotonous, but really it works. The theme they stick to on _Cold_ is, obviously, of a wintery, somewhat desolate, imagery. Windswept, silent, still vistas roll on endlessly and seem to make time itself slow to a crawl. One bundles up both externally and internally, sinking back into solitude and contemplation. Stately, commanding drum lines direct the highlights of your consciousness, while simple yet heavy guitar parts punctuate and point to connections in the subconscious, and austere synths gently wrap together associations and memories into a neatly-woven mesh of mood and atmosphere. It all works together beautifully, although I should also mention that this isn't even one of their better albums.