Professional ratings
Aggregate scores
Source	Rating
Metacritic	77/100
Review scores
Source	Rating
AllMusic
Alternative Press
Consequence of Sound
The Guardian
MSN Music	A-
NME	8/10
Paste	6.7/10
Pitchfork	8.2/10
Rolling Stone
Slant Magazine

Reign of Terror is the second studio album by American noise pop duo Sleigh Bells. The album was released on February 21, 2012 by Mom+Pop.

Following the critical success of their debut album Treats, Sleigh Bells started writing new material for their next album while on tour for their debut album, and recorded it over the course of five months in 2011. While Treats used a mixture of guitars and beats that eschewed pop song structures for their overall sound, Reign of Terror emphasized more guitar sounds that follow structures with emotionally heavy lyrics.

The album received a generally positive reception from critics. Reign of Terror debuted at number 12 on the Billboard 200 and spawned only one single: "Comeback Kid". To promote the album, Sleigh Bells toured across North America and Europe.

The writing process for Reign of Terror began during the touring cycle for Sleigh Bells' debut album Treats in 2010. The song writing for Reign of Terror was a more collaborative effort between group members Derek E. Miller and Alexis Krauss, as the majority of the songs on Treats were written solely by Miller before Krauss joined the group. Krauss' musical background is primarily in pop music, and her contributions to the album included pop song structures such as bridges, counter-melodies and pre-choruses. In addition to traditional pop music song structures, Reign of Terror also features a more guitar-centered sound. According to Miller, "With Treats it was less clear to me whether Sleigh Bells was going to be a guitar band or if we were going to do more sample-heavy stuff. With this record I had to pick sides. The beats are still important to me, but the guitar won." Sleigh Bells also described the album as being heavy, immense, and huge, and a press release described it as "the sonic equivalent of a beautiful shotgun to the head." Lyrically, Reign of Terror features songs that are emotionally heavy, differing from the songs on Treats which were described as "party music" by Miller.

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