the band's original bassist adam doll was unable to contribute to the recording of "calculating infinity" after suffering a spinal fracture in a road traffic accident shortly before recording began, forcing guitarist ben weinman to handle all guitar and bass duties. speaking to "kerrang!" about doll's injury, weinman described it as "a life-changing moment" for the band, adding: "it was difficult to think about moving forward, but i felt he would get better and i wanted to make something for him to come back to". rhythm guitarist brian benoit joined the band partway through the recording process and contributed additional guitar recordings to a handful of tracks, as well as writing a guitar part on "clip the apex... accept instruction" and assisting with vocal arrangements on "variations on a cocktail dress". when asked whether the band considered delaying the recording of the album until benoit was "fully integrated" into the band, weinman responded: "the idea was ... for us to progress and build on what we had done" rather than "stopping our progression waiting for someone else to catch up"; benoit also commented: "i knew my role, which was getting up to par live".