Tear from the Red
Tear from the Red is the second full-length album by American metalcore band Poison the Well. It was released via Trustkill Records on February 19, 2002. The album was the band's first release to appear on Billboards Independent Albums and Heatseekers Albums charts, and was responsible for landing Poison the Well a major record label deal. It also featured the band's first single and music video for "Botchla". The release received numerous reissues on various formats over the years through such record labels as Good Life Recordings, Roadrunner Records, Shock Records, Rise Records, Ides of March, and Undying Music, and was digitally remastered in 2012.
In promotion of the album, Poison the Well toured the United States several times between November 2001 and October 2002, crossing into Canada twice. The bands that accompanied Poison the Well on these tours include Unearth, Sworn Enemy, Hatebreed, God Forbid, Shadows Fall, American Nightmare, Converge, Most Precious Blood, No Warning, Throwdown, Bane, Hemlock, Eighteen Visions, Codeseven, From Autumn to Ashes, Blood Has Been Shed, Glassjaw, Recover, Vex Red, Strung Out, Rise Against, Rufio, Kittie, Killswitch Engage, The Promise Ring, The International Noise Conspiracy, Thursday, Cursive, The Lawrence Arms, and Common Rider. Poison the Well also performed at notable festivals like Stillborn Festival in West Babylon, New York, the New England Metal and Hardcore Festival in Worcester, Connecticut, Start Your Lawnmower in Cleveland, Ohio, and the Skate and Surf Festival in Asbury Park, New Jersey.
Not unlike The Opposite of December... A Season of Separation
Recording
Poison the Well had originally planned to record their second album in April 2001, after returning from a booked Asian tour, with a scheduled release date of August 1, 2001. At that time, the release was to be made up of eleven original songs and a cover song. The cover song was quickly dropped and the band announced that they would instead track twelve original songs. Once the Asian tour was cancelled, the band took the opportunity to spend more time writing the album and opted to tour North America during the spring and summer of 2001. Tear from the Red was written over a period of one year, from the summer of 2000 to the summer of 2001, during which time the band played with five different bassists: Alan Landsman, Michael Gordillo, Javier Van Huss, Albert and Iano Dovi each contributed to the songwriting and arrangements. Gordillo would have performed on the album, had it been recorded as originally planned in April 2001, and had it not been for his untimely departure.The band returned to Studio 13 in Deerfield Beach, Florida on October 15, 2001 to begin the recording of nine original songs with producer Jeremy Staska. While in studio, the band added an interlude titled "Karsey Street", which sampled a speech uttered by Marlon Brando toward the end of the film Apocalypse Now. The title referenced 213 Karsey Street in Highland Park, New Jersey, a house where NORA drummer Chris Ross lived, along with Poison the Well's roadie Rick, where the band had previously watched the movie and were planning to stay during their upcoming tour. Another song from the album, "Lazzaro" also references Apocalypse Now. Poison the Well wrapped up the Tear from the Red studio recording session on November 25, 2001, for a total production cost of $6,000.
Release and packaging
vocalist Jacob Bannon was originally consulted to design the artwork for Tear from the Red, through his graphic design company Atomic! Information Design. Banon had designed the artwork for the band's two prior releases, The Opposite of December... A Season of Separation and the reissue of Distance Makes the Heart Grow Fonder, but the band ultimately hired Demon Hunter bassist Don Clark at Asterik Studio to do the job. The compact disc edition booklet pressed through Trustkill Records was designed to include a semi-transparent parchment paper before and after every page, including one before the front cover. This resulted with a more desaturated look and feel, an effect embellished by the use of heavyweight paper.Poison the Well planned to release Tear from the Red on Valentine's Day, February 14, 2002. However, the date fell on a Thursday and Trustkill Records was forced to work with music industry standards of releasing new music on Tuesdays. The date was therefore set for the first Tuesday after Valentine's Day, February 19, 2002. Trustkill Records began accepting pre-orders on February 8, 2002, and any orders placed prior to the release date included a free 18" by 24" poster.
The vinyl version was licensed to Good Life Recordings in Belgium and Ides of March in the United States. Ides of March, operated by Matt Fox of the band Shai Hulud, released Tear from the Red on 12" vinyl in mid-March 2002 under catalog number NCC1709, pressed on a choice of solid red vinyl and clear gold vinyl. The artwork used for the Ides of March vinyl had a darker red, almost burgundy, with no birds on the bottom. These sold out in a matter of weeks and on May 14, 2002, a second pressing was available on a choice of clear vinyl and pink vinyl. Good Life Recordings pressed the album on a pictured 12" vinyl under catalog number GL078 in the summer of 2002. The first pressing featured an orange Good Life Recordings logo while the second pressing changed it to a blue logo.
In the spring of 2002, Trustkill Records signed a deal with Indonesia's Undying Records for a selection of their releases to be reissued in Asia on cassette tape. Through this licensing deal, Poison the Well's Tear from the Red was pressed on tape and released in July 2002 under catalog number UM003. Most copies were sold in Asia but Trustkill Records received a number of copies for sale in North America through their webstore.
In addition to pressing compact discs, Trustkill Records offered a limited edition Tear from the Red 7" vinyl containing the songs "Turn Down Elliot" and "Pieces of You in Me". The 7" vinyl was released on August 27, 2002, under catalog number TK37.5, and was available on a choice of transparent red vinyl, transparent orange vinyl and transparent gold vinyl.
In August 2004, Trustkill Records signed a deal with Roadrunner Records for a selection of their releases to be reissued in foreign markets such as the United Kingdom and Europe. Through this licensing deal, Poison the Well's Tear from the Red was finally made available locally for those regions. The album was re-released in France, Germany and the Netherlands on October 11, 2004 and in the United Kingdom on October 25, 2004 under catalog number RR8221. The Roadrunner Records version of Tear from the Red did not include the parchment paper in the booklet and was printed with more vibrant colors. It also included a parental advisory printed on the bottom right of the front cover and included the "Botchla" music video in an enhanced multimedia section.
In early 2007, Trustkill Records signed a deal with Shock Records for a selection of their past releases to be distributed in Australasia. Through this distribution deal, Poison the Well's album Tear from the Red was finally made available locally in Australia and New Zealand. The distribution deal originally had Trustkill Records ship a container of already-pressed compact discs to Shock Records for retail marketing through their chain of stores. These American-made compact discs were released to the Australasia market on June 2, 2007 and were identical to the ones sold in the United States. After quickly selling out of the American-made discs, Shock Records began repressing the release directly in Australia. The Opposite of December... A Season of Separation and Tear from the Red were each pressed in separate jewel cases baring no barcodes on the back cover; each was given the same catalog number TK24103. The two jewel cases were packaged together in a slipcase which contained the barcode for retail stores and the catalog number TK24103, and the double-disc release was sold as a single unit starting on February 16, 2008. Shock Records simultaneously released similar packages for Trustkill Records' Terror, Hopesfall, Throwdown, Walls of Jericho, Most Precious Blood and Bleeding Through. The Shock Records version did not include the parchment paper in the booklet and instead printed the artwork on a textured paper. The yellow colored artwork on the upper-hand portion of the artwork was desaturated to an off-white.
On March 25, 2008, Trustkill Records re-released The Opposite of December... A Season of Separation and Tear from the Red in a special double-LP gatefold packaging under catalog number TK110. Each side of the gatefold cover featured the front artwork of each album. The release was pressed on a choice of blue and red vinyl, white and yellow vinyl, and white and pink vinyl. Trustkill Records simultaneously re-released two other double-LP packages from its past roster: Throwdown's Haymaker / Vendetta and Walls of Jericho's With Devils Amongst Us All / All Hail the Dead.
In 2011, Sumerian Records attempted to purchase a license to reissue The Opposite of December... A Season of Separation and Tear from the Red from Trustkill Records but was unsuccessful. On May 4, 2012, it was revealed that Rise Records had secured the rights to the reissues and would be releasing them in the summer of 2012. Unlike Trustkill Records' 2008 gatefold vinyl repress, Rise Records went to the extent of having all of the audio content remastered and designing a new artwork and layout. The two albums were digitally remastered by Will Putney, while the artwork was adapted by merging two releases' original artworks together. After some delays, Rise Records reissued the 19-song, double-release compilation The Opposite of December... A Season of Separation / Tear from the Red on November 20, 2012 as catalog number RR176. The set was offered as a single compact disc edition packaged in a digipak, a gatefold double LP and digitally through streaming and download. The double LP was originally offered on a choice of transparent blue swirl and transparent red swirl, or clear vinyl color. A second pressing was done on blue and red starburst coloured vinyl.