And Their Name Was Treason

And Their Name Was Treason is the debut studio album by the American rock band A Day to Remember, released on May 10, 2005 through Indianola Records. It followed their second self-released EP, which was produced the same year. The album was the band's only release under Indianola; its success led the group sign to Victory Records. Several songs on the album were written during the band members' teenage years. Recorded in the producer's bedroom, the album contains audio excerpts from several films. The band toured in the United States to help promote the album. The album has since sold over 10,000 copies. A re-recorded version of the album, titled Old Record, was released in October 2008 by Victory. The band members later admitted that they were forced to do the re-recording at the request of label owner Tony Brummel and were given two days to do so which resulted in them only re-recording the instrumentals and leaving the vocals as it was on the original album. The reissue charted at number 16 on the Heatseekers Album Chart in the U.S.

A Day to Remember formed when guitarist Tom Denney asked Jeremy McKinnon if he would like to join the band as a vocalist. The pair hung out with drummer Bobby Scruggs, who later joined the band. During this period, both Denney and Scruggs were already in a band; Denney was in 2 Days 2 Late, while McKinnon played in All for Nothing. The trio wrote a song which McKinnon said "was better than everything our other bands had come up with". Shortly afterwards the trio decided to form a band which was called End of An Era in its first week of existence. The name was inspired by a movie listing in a TV guide found in Denney's home. The band hated the name and one day a former drummer joined the band after they had left their previous band had the name A Day to Remember with him and the band decided to use that name instead. The drummer was soon kicked out of the band.

Scruggs' friend stayed in the band for a short period. He was fired after several instances of walking off stage mid-performance. According to Denney, the group's original bassist and rhythm guitarist "didn't work out". They were subsequently replaced by guitarist Neil Westfall and bassist Joshua Woodard. At the time, Westfall was also in 2 Days 2 Late, while Woodard was a fan of the band. A Day to Remember practiced in McKinnon's garage, who was living with his parents at the time. The band released an independent EP, Halos for Heros, Dirt for the Dead, which helped them secure a recording contract. The EP contained an early version of "If Looks Could Kill", titled "If Looks Could Kill...then You'd Be Dead".

In terms of fun, I would say our first record and I would say that because we didn't care. I mean, there was absolutely no thought, there was no revision; we were a local band and we just wrote music that didn't make sense and it doesn't go together at all, so that was definitely the easiest one to do, because we didn't really give a crap what it sounded like.

According to McKinnon, And Their Name Was Treason was recorded "probably within 3 days", in Andrew Wade's bedroom at his parents house (credited in the album booklet as The Wade Studio). The members later said they had "no idea" what they were doing when they were recording the album. The album features samples from various films throughout; "Intro" features a sample from the film Donnie Darko, "1958" features a sample from the film The Boondock Saints and "Sound the Alarm" features audio from Shaun of the Dead. Speaking about the lyrical themes on the record, guitarist Tom Denney said that they were "all experiences that [singer] Jeremy has had, its all based on life".

A few of the songs were written by the band when they were teenagers, such as "1958", "Heartless", and "You Should Have Killed Me When You Had the Chance", the latter being one of the first songs that the band ever wrote. "1958" was written about a temporary drummer, who threatened to go McKinnon's parents house with a baseball bat; the numbers "1958" being the last four digits of his phone number. Denney added that the song "talks about family and us sticking together no matter what."

Record label Indianola were introduced to the band by their PureVolume account, which was shown to the label by a mutual friend of the band. On February 9, 2005, the band got signed to Indianola, which McKinnon later said that the band thought "was the biggest shit in the world". On the same day, And Their Name Was Treason was announced for release later that year. Samples of three tracks, "1958", "Casablanca Sucked Anyways", and "If Looks Could Kill", were posted on the website of The Wade Studio prior to release. Since its release on May 10, 2005, And Their Name Was Treason sold over 10,000 copies in the U.S. with little advertising and no media exposure. The album's success helped the band sign to Victory for their following album. The group toured in the U.S. in the summer of 2005 to promote the record, along with other bands such as Caldwell and Orion. The tour continued throughout October and November with Foreknown and Blessed by a Broken Heart as supporting acts. The group's travel vehicles were financed by McKinnon's parents.

Shortly before the beginning of one tour, Scruggs told the band he wasn't going, so Woodard and Westfall recruited Alex Shelnutt. Upon being asked, Shelnutt's response was "Ask my mom", as he was 15 at the time. "A Second Glance" had a music video, directed by Reel Players. It was included on the promotional Welcome to Indianola Records album. The band left Indianola as they thought the label would not be able to take them "to the next level", as McKinnon commented.