Petitioning the Empty Sky is the second studio album by American metalcore band Converge. However, contrary to many sources, the band considers this a compilation album, being a collection of songs recorded at different times. While tracklists differ between releases, this album features studio recorded tracks along with live recordings of three songs. Petitioning the Empty Sky was released and distributed through several different labels beginning in the mid 90s. Release Petitioning the Empty Sky was originally released through Ferret Music in 1996 and was also one of the earliest albums released through the newly formed label. This early version was a 7" EP featuring only the first four tracks of the eventual full-length. Later that same year the record was re-released with four new tracks added to it. Two years later, the album was reissued through Converge's new label Equal Vision Records as EVR040 on January 20, 1998. The full length reissue contained three live tracks ("For You," "Homesong," and "Antithesis") recorded during a radio broadcast, three newly recorded tracks ("Buried But Breathing," "Farewell Note to This City," and "Color Me Blood Red") and one track ("Shingles") that was recorded along with the original four tracks, but were unreleased. Shortly after the release of Converge's 2004 album You Fail Me through Epitaph Records, Equal Vision reissued remasters of Petitioning the Empty Sky and When Forever Comes Crashing. The updated version of Petitioning the Empty Sky featured new artwork from Isis frontman Aaron Turner, production work from Converge's Kurt Ballou in addition to Mike Poorman and Alan Douches, and an alternate version of "Love As Arson" as a bonus track. The liner notes also contain the first half of an essay written by the "Aggressive Tendencies" columnist and editor of the Canadian online magazine Exclaim!, Chris Gramlich. The second part of the essay is continued in When Forever Comes Crashing. The remaster was Equal Vision's EVR109 released on March 22, 2005. In 2006, Jacob Bannon's Deathwish Inc. released a vinyl box set collection for the remasters of Petitioning the Empty Sky and When Forever Comes Crashing in a package dubbed Petitioning Forever. Due to the physical limitations of a vinyl LP, a single 12" record cannot hold all of the songs from the remaster. The three live tracks were released separately with the first pressing on a 7" vinyl with its own artwork based on box set packaging. The box