The sheer volume and scale of Sleigh Bells' 2010 debut Treats meant that many curious eyes would be fixed on whatever it is that the followed it up and now, two years later, the Brooklyn duo of Alexis Krauss and Derek Miller have returned with an equally fierce sophomore effort. Reign of Terror echoes the monster riffs of its predecessor but is weighted slightly more towards Krauss's pop sensibilities rather than Miller's guitar-shredding mayhem.
Treats was a sumptuous blend of noises that shouldn't have worked together, but did. Reign of Terror definitively continues on this theme but is perhaps less successful at merging the sounds, some of which appear at odds with each other. 'End of the Line', a sort of companion piece to Treats' 'Rill Rill', doesn't quite have the same gravitas as its older cousin. Others like 'Road To Hell' and 'You Lost Me' float by almost unnoticed which, whether you were a fan or not of the previous record, is an accusation difficult to make.
All of that aside, 'Comeback Kid' is about as good as any song Sleigh Bells have penned to date and 'Leader of the Pack' and 'Born To Lose' are immensely satisfying but Reign of Terror doesn't seem like an appropriate title for a collection of songs that are immeasurably more saccharine than anything that appeared on Treats.
