diff --git a/build.go b/build.go
index 3bd098265..fdd6f943a 100644
--- a/build.go
+++ b/build.go
@@ -525,11 +525,6 @@ func main() {
 
 	verbosePrintf("detected Go version %v\n", goVersion)
 
-	if len(buildTags) == 0 {
-		verbosePrintf("adding build-tag release\n")
-		buildTags = []string{"release"}
-	}
-
 	for i := range buildTags {
 		buildTags[i] = strings.TrimSpace(buildTags[i])
 	}
diff --git a/internal/debug/hooks.go b/internal/debug/hooks.go
index 19eee7e3c..e47084fee 100644
--- a/internal/debug/hooks.go
+++ b/internal/debug/hooks.go
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-// +build !release
+// +build debug
 
 package debug
 
diff --git a/internal/debug/hooks_release.go b/internal/debug/hooks_release.go
index 376df26ac..86efa9f64 100644
--- a/internal/debug/hooks_release.go
+++ b/internal/debug/hooks_release.go
@@ -1,4 +1,4 @@
-// +build release
+// +build !debug
 
 package debug
 
diff --git a/run_integration_tests.go b/run_integration_tests.go
index 1a97b6280..8d55055b3 100644
--- a/run_integration_tests.go
+++ b/run_integration_tests.go
@@ -315,7 +315,7 @@ func (env *TravisEnvironment) RunTests() error {
 
 	if *runCrossCompile {
 		// compile for all target architectures with tags
-		for _, tags := range []string{"release", "debug"} {
+		for _, tags := range []string{"", "debug"} {
 			err := runWithEnv(env.env, "gox", "-verbose",
 				"-osarch", strings.Join(env.goxOSArch, " "),
 				"-tags", tags,