War in the Vendée was not until the social unrest and the fear of The Terror (a period between 1793–94 where tens of thousands of people were beheaded by use of guillotine) combined with the external pressures from the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790) and the introduction of a levy of 300,000 on the whole of France, decreed by the National Convention in February 1793, that the region erupted. The Civil Constitution of the Clergy required all clerics to swear allegiance to it and, by extension, to the increasingly anti-clerical National Constituent Assembly. All but seven of the 160 bishops refused the oath,
Reign of Terror (Sleigh Bells album) 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. Sleigh Bells were rushed during the production of "Treats" and were unable to finish recording all of the songs they had written before they had to leave the studio to perform at scheduled tour dates. Not wanting to repeat this mistake, the duo set aside a lot of time in 2011 to record and produce "Reign of Terror".