After forming in 1996, Spineshank shopped a demo tape around the Los Angeles area, bringing them to the attention of Fear Factory guitarist Dino Cazares.

Upon its release, Strictly Diesel received generally positive reviews from critics but proved to be a commercial disappointment, only reaching number 129 on the UK Albums Chart.

[7][11] Spineshank made their live debut on January 11, 1997, after Sarkisyan asked Cazares if his band could open for Coal Chamber and Fear Factory at the Whisky a Go Go in Los Angeles.

[5][11] The band's reputation as a live act helped them secure further opening slots for Brujeria, Coal Chamber, Snot, Soulfly, Sepultura, and Danzig.

[16] Cazares assisted the band in their signing with Roadrunner, with Fear Factory's attorney helping them sort out their contract as they did not have a lawyer at the time.

[16][17] The album's sound drew from, and was compared to, Korn, Deftones, Machine Head, Sepultura, Misery Loves Co., Tool and Pantera—bands which Spineshank cited as musical influences.

[19] In a 1998 interview with Loudside, Santos cited Mike Patton, Burton C. Bell, Chino Moreno and Maynard James Keenan as influences on his vocals.

Santos said that Strictly Diesel "is about coming from nothing to something", and its lyrics drew from the personal lives of Spineshank's members "and how overcoming their hardships have made them stronger".

[12] Critic and author Colin Larkin wrote in The Encyclopedia of Popular Music (2006) that Spineshank were "more interested emulating the hedonistic behaviour of their collective idols Mötley Crüe, than concentrating on working—much to the annoyance of [their] record company.

[12] In later interviews, Spineshank felt that their drinking habits negatively affected the quality of Strictly Diesel, as they were unable to "put everything [they had] into [the album]".

[32] Although the album did not chart there or receive much radio airplay,[33] Strictly Diesel managed to sell over 66,000 copies in the United States by March 24, 2002, according to Nielsen SoundScan.

He also acknowledged that whilst Strictly Diesel bore elements from Korn, Deftones and Tool, it had "just enough depth and originality to avoid outright plagiarism" and ultimately considered the album to be "one of the most blistering debuts in some time".

[29] Chris Ayers of The Herald opined that the band mixed "the thrashy aggression of Sepultura with the mechanical mayhem of Fear Factory".

[35] AllMusic reviewer Greg Prato similarly felt that the album's sound wasn't "a direct ripoff of [Spineshank's] influences; it's hard to think of any band today that would have had the guts to redo the Beatles' classic "While My Guitar Gently Weeps" as a distorted, heavy dirge.

"[24] Rock Hard also praised the cover of "While My Guitar Gently Weeps", although the reviewer conceded that the main reason they liked Strictly Diesel was because it was a "potent (yes, yes...) copy [sic]" of Fear Factory's sound.

[12][40] The band later toured as support for Fear Factory, Sepultura and Hed PE between April and May 1999, and they also made an appearance at the Dynamo Open Air festival on May 21, 1999, performing on the Gallery Stage.

[37][41] Spineshank's association with Fear Factory created pre-release hype for Strictly Diesel;[4][6][42][43] less than two months before the album's release, Kerrang!

[5] A guest appearance by Fear Factory's then-vocalist, Burton C. Bell, on the album's final track "Stain (Start the Machine)" generated further publicity for the band.

[12] The band were motivated by the poor reception of Strictly Diesel to prove themselves when writing and recording their next album, The Height of Callousness (2000), which several critics saw as a triumph over their detractors from this period.