It is the band's darkest and heaviest album, with many songs directly addressing the subject of death.

Ken Marshall, a noted Canadian producer of industrial music, produced the album, giving many songs a densely layered, textured production which results in an almost psychedelic hard rock sound.

The song's video, directed by Morris Panych, was choreographed around a fixed-location camera.

However, despite the song's chart success, the video became their first in many years not to receive significant rotation on MuchMusic.

In promotion for the album, Spirit of the West was featured on the cover of the June 11, 1995 issue of RPM magazine.