As we move further west in this series, I start to lose familiarity with each region. I’ve spent most of my time, both in life and in hardcore, within the Toronto – Ottawa – Montréal corridor which has shaped my perspective on the entire country. However, I have been lucky enough to travel across the country twice by car, which at times can be a surreal experience as you begin to truly grasp how enormous and diverse the country really is. One of, if not the most, surprising parts of my trips has been Saskatchewan. In Ontario, Saskatchewan is thought of as the most boring place on earth, a place where you can watch your dog run away for a week, but when you drive through it there is a feeling of enormity to it. It isn’t called the Land of Living Skies for no reason, and it is under these wild skies that we find Spirit of Vengeance.
An interesting phenomenon that I have noticed while listening to bands from western Canada is that the groovy-crossover infused hardcore that dominates in the Midwestern states has bled north into Canada. Whereas bands such as Meantime only have subtle hints of this influence, others such as Stepping Stone and Spirit of Vengeance fully embrace it. Spirit of Vengeance starts their demo off with a riff that I think can aptly be described as “rolling” as chugs along at a moderate pace like the Great Plains themselves. From there, the demo only gets more aggressive, both musically and lyrically, with tracks such as “One By One” and the confrontational “Grudge” about settler colonialism on the Canadian prairies. “Piggy Piggy” for me is the stand out track, if only for the closing section with its pounding riff overlaid with a vocal pattern that can’t help but get stuck in your head. Spirit of Vengeance is arguably the most aggressive band that this site has covered so far, and they do it in a way that draws you right into their dissatisfaction and anger that can only be a product of Prairie winters.
Coming from a province that many Canadians are quick to write off as boring or uninteresting, Spirit of Vengeance released a great demo which does the little things right while hinting at even bigger things to come.
The Great White North 
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