Reign of Terror

Sleigh Bells

After receiving very positive reception with their 2010 debut Treats, Sleigh Bells return with their sophomore effort Reign of Terror. The duo of Derek Miller and Alexis Krauss had stated prior to its release that Reign of Terror would draw from metal influences. Sure enough, you can feel that influence from the get go.

We get a decent opener in “True Shred Guitar” with its crowd-buffering guitar riffs. We then dive into “Born to Lose” where the subject matter takes a dark turn toward suicide accompanied by pounding bass pedals intermittently. Very metal.

The album is at its best with arena thumpers “Crush and “End of the Line”, the latter of which is more of a traditional pop song than anything else on Reign of Terror. Kind of like what “Rill Rill” was on Treats. Sadly, this is the peak of the album’s greatness. Make no mistake, Sleigh Bells delivered on their promise of metal influences. It’s very evident in most of the songs, especially on the second half of the album. From the dark songs about death and suicide (“You Lost Me”) to the powerful guitar riffs and thudding kick drums (“Demons”) the Brooklyn duo really made sure to cover the basics of metal-inspired tunes. Sadly, the album just fell flat. Like the thud of a kick drum. The least three songs on the album all blended together for me and were not very memorable.

I’ll admit that I wasn’t that big a fan of Treats. It had its few good songs, but as a whole the album sounded like a garbled bunch of noise. However, as I was listening to Reign of Terror I wanted to go back to Treats and if I do, I’ll probably appreciate it more. Sleigh Bells did try to do something different with their sound here and I applaud the effort from Miller and Krauss. I never got the feeling they were phoning it in by any means. This album just suffers from too much repetitiveness in its beats and ultimately can’t redeem itself.

Recommended Tracks: “Crush”, “End of the Line”