Reign of Terror - Sleigh Bells

Noteworthy

In its second album, Reign of Terror, Brooklyn duo Sleigh Bells unleashes a sonic onslaught in one of the most anticipated releases of early 2012. However, if you're looking for an album of in-your-face dance romps that made the band famous, you may be disappointed; much of the work, although more mature, sounds rather staid compared to its last effort.

In Treats, Sleigh Bells's first that was released in 2010, guitarist-producer Derek E. Miller pushed distortion levels to an extreme levels. When accompanied by the rah-rah sound-offs of singer Alexis Krauss, this resulted in blowing out listeners' speakers even at mild volumes. To add to the heavy downbeats and overdrive this time, Miller utilizes Reign of Terror to combine the more direct elements of the band with ones that exude a more subdued, gentle tone typically found in shoegazing.

For the five of you that read this blog, I think it's a safe bet that maybe only one of you knows the alt-rock subgenre known as shoegazing. To explain it in succinct terms, shoegaze is the result of the collision of art rock and punk popularized by several British bands in the early '90s. It relies on effects-driven, heavily distorted guitar (called the "wall of sound") that blankets the actual melody. The singer has more of a secondary role of singing in a near whisper to add a trance-like depth to this melody; many times the words are almost unintelligible. The paragon of shoegazing is My Bloody Valentine's Loveless. It's one of my favorite albums, and I highly recommend listening to it firsthand. To the one person who knows what I'm talking about and can probably explain this better than I can: sorry, dude.

With groups like M83 and Silversun Pickups leading a shoegaze revival, Krauss follows suit with such vocal versatility — adding equal parts of Sonic Youth's Kim Gordon, Shirley Manson and solo-career Gwen Stefani to the mix — that she makes it easy to switch from the group's pop anthems to the endearing and demure examples demonstrated on Reign of Terror.

"End of the Line" is certainly the most sentimental song on the work. With sweeping arpeggios from Miller's guitar, the murmurs from Krauss convey more feeling and empathy than most other divas in her genre ever could. Meanwhile, the album also contains the girl-pop chants that launched the duo into the spotlight. On "Demons," there is little doubt that Krauss can still tempt the devil in us all with her supreme boldness and angsty cheers. Do not mistake Krauss's choices for meekness. She fields any questions about her lifetime-badass membership card before anyone with the balls has a chance to ask. Listen to the album's intro, "True Shred Guitar," in which she must drop the f-bomb over seven times in a thirty-second intro in front of a live audience before Miller takes over.

The guitarist and producer also should be commended for his adept arrangements. While he doesn't deviate from the quality of his riffs (a style implementing Black Sabbath, Def Leppard and a very lax Children of Bodom), he succeeds in his purpose to complement Krauss's emotions. One can easily hear how Miller's knowledge of song structure conveys the immense intensity in "Born to Lose." From the tune's droll riff to Miller's bearing down on his guitar's whammy bar, the song succeeds in joining together the the group's older and rawer aspects with the newer and more polished dynamic.

What Sleigh Bells produces with Reign of Terror is a work that is both ornate and introspective. It's this kind of depth that frames the band as the bad boy-girl band on the indie scene today. Although not perfect, the duo's manic ability to both let lose and show restraint makes this an album worth the listen.

For Your Consideration: "Born to Lose," "End of the Line," "Demons."

For Next Time: Some Nights - Fun.