SLEIGH BELLS play the Phoenix March 26, and open for Red Hot Chili Peppers at the Air Canada Centre April 27 and 28. Rating: NNN
Sleigh Bells concentrate more on songwriting for their follow-up to their wildly successful noise pop debut, Treats, and set aside the abrasive yet strangely pleasurable digital distortion and over-compression that were their trademark. However, Reign Of Terror is less of a departure than the band thinks. Essentially, the formula is the same: teenybopper pop buried under a mountain of noise, except this time the crunch is more hair metal than hardcore.
It’s still satisfying, but it highlights how important their unconventional approach to production was to their original appeal. Sure, the songwriting is more consistent this time around, but the tunes themselves were always secondary to their unique textures and mood, which used to be intrinsically tied to their creative abuse of studio techniques. Reign Of Terror still sounds like Sleigh Bells, but a more polite and conservative version. Where’s the fun in that?
Top track: Crush
