Cold Frontier is the ninth studio album by English acoustic roots duo Show of Hands. It was recorded in early 2001 on location by the Countess Wear at the River Exe, Exeter, Devon, with Mick Dolan, engineer for Steve Winwood, co-producing the album with the duo. The album features a stripped down, acoustic sound. The duo's website says the album is "possibly Show of Hands’ finest work so far." The album comes with a full colour twenty page booklet, all the lyrics, and comments on the background of each track.

The album was released in September 2001 by the band's label Hands on Music. The album was released to positive reviews, with David Kidman of NetRhythms calling the album a "triumph". The supporting promotional tour, The Cold Frontier Tour, was unusual in that it mixed the album's material with older, lesser known material from the band and cover versions of songs by artists both well known and obscure. The tour spawned the acclaimed live album Cold Cuts (2002). The second song on Cold Frontier, "Are We Alright", was re-recorded for the duo's best-of compilation album, Roots: The Best of Show of Hands (2007), which features three other songs from the album. The song itself has become a live staple of the duo.

After releasing Dark Fields (1997), Show of Hands experimented with recording albums of material written by people beside the duo. Folk Music (1998) was a limited edition album feature the band's performances of traditional folk songs, whilst Covers (2000) featured the band's cover versions that reflect the duo's contemporary musical influences. Released between the two albums was Steve Knightley's first solo album, Track of Words (1999), whilst Beer worked on several projects, including the concept album Ridgeriders (1999) and a collaborative album centred around the fiddle, The Fiddle Collection (1999). In 2001, they performed their second concert at the Royal Albert Hall which was filmed for their VHS concert film The Big Gig – Show of Hands @ The Royal Albert Hall (2001). The film was filmed by ITV franchise holder Carlton Productions, who broadcast it on ITV Carlton as two dedicated half-hour programmes. The performance and television transmission, which themselves were a measure of the reputation the duo had built up until then, had increased interest in the duo.

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