Review Summary: This Will Come To Pass is a resounding triumph for a band with one foot pushing forward and one rooted in the past.
Calculator are one of Los Angeles' best kept secrets. Their at times messy, but oh so artfully put together, brand of off kilter screamo has been breaking walls and PA's at many a DIY art space and punk house since 2007, but it wasn't until 2011's
New Forms that Calculator started to come into their own. Don't get me wrong, their debut
These Roots Grow Deep is a blistering effort but from a young band still finding their footing in the not so distant memories of Orchid and City of Caterpillar. So here we are, three years removed from the hinting of so much more on
New Forms, and Calculator have f
ucking delivered. Big time.
This Will Come To Pass is the statement that those who have been following the band since they were in their teenage years have been waiting for – not in that it has ushered some great change in their controlled chaos, but in the simple refinements that have removed the clutter, leaving behind only the most affecting and emotional moments. Every chord, every frenetic drum beat, every broken scream hits just a little too close to home and it's all the better for it. Furthermore the pacing of the record is brilliant. There is nary a moment where the musical ground isn't in a constantly shifting connect the dots-like motion that snakes its way to a much bigger picture in the end.
This Will Come to Pass is a record built on tension. Even in its softest moments it feels as though the entire sheen on noisy guitars and emotive yells is only seconds away from breaking apart, crashing down into a well of uncomfortable introverted feedback. It is a credit to the force that is Calculator that in this day of assembly line screamo bands, not only have they created a record that is uniquely their own, but they have done so by staying true to the ideals and sounds of the genre's storied past.
