Winters Bane are a heavy/power metal band, formed in 1990. They have gone through extensive line-up changes throughout their history with only guitarist and sometime-vocalist Lou St. Paul featuring as an ever-present.

In their first incarnation with Tim "Ripper" Owens (who would later join Judas Priest and Iced Earth), they released the Heart of a Killer album in 1993, a concept piece based on the murderous exploits of a character called Judge Cohagen. This album was re-released in 2000 by Century Media Records as a 2-CD set, featuring a bootlegged live gig as a bonus disc.