Reign of Terror and Sardinia, began attacking France from all directions besieging and capturing ports and retaking ground lost to France. With so many similarities to the first days of the Revolutionary Wars, the French government with threats on all sides, unification of the country became a top priority. As the war continued and the Reign of Terror began, leaders saw a correlation between using terror and achieving victory. Well phrased by Albert Soboul, “terror, at first an improvised response to defeat, once organized became an instrument of victory.” The threat of defeat and foreign invasion may have helped spur the origins of
Reign of Terror (Sleigh Bells album) the latter also describing the flag as being "ostentatious". Because the songs on "Reign of Terror" have more guitar harmonies than previous releases, Sleigh Bells employed Jason Boyer as a backing touring guitarist for live performances. Miller also liked the symmetry of having two guitarists on both sides of a vocalist. Prior to the album's release, several publications listed "Reign of Terror" as an anticipated release for the first part of 2012 including "Spin", "Time", Metacritic and NPR. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalized rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream critics, the album received an average score of