Calculator

Calculator could have been the most hilarious moniker for a mathcore band ever. Instead, we're stuck with a screamo band that channel '90s precursors such as Saetia while meeting current scene leaders Touché Amoré, Xerxes and Loma Prieta. As is standard for their genre, Calculator's delivery is anything but calculated, instead coming across as scattered and sloppy, with a slight jazzy tinge. While that is part of the genre's appeal, Calculator spend the majority of These Roots Grow Deep sounding like a train that's about to derail. There's just something unsettling about the way the emotional roller coaster rolls out of the speakers — at times in blasts, at others, barely a trickle. Fortunately, this album is a retrospective of Calculator's first three years' worth of material, from 2007 to 2009, and the band's only improved since. Therefore, consider These Roots Grow Deep a primer for their more cohesive 2013 full-length, This Will Come to Pass, and enjoy their progression.