If you visit Sonic Kollage's website you'll see that the guys claim influences by the likes of Dream Theater, Galactic Cowboys, and Tourniquet, among others. Frankly, I don't hear it, aside from some recent Tourniquet sounds (especially the Carry the Wounded EP) in the technical rock/metal guitars. Once you get past any expectations, however, there is some very interesting and unique, if very indie, prog-metal/rapcore to be found on Morsel.
The unfortunate thing about the album is the production, which is weird in a bad way. It appears they recorded the album on a computer with a Soundblaster card, which makes it sound strangely digitalized and flimsy, with an annoying spacy echo, like an old unmastered Frank's Enemy tape. Of course finances are often a big problem, but next time they should try to do it the old-fashioned way and use a real studio.
The music is pretty cool, though, when you get used to the production. The guys are into noodling on their instruments for sure, implementing techniques from prog, technical metal, classical, funk, and so on. Some of this could be really heavy if the production allowed it, although the mathematical riffs and leads take precedence most of the time. Vocals switch from a not-so-hot singing voice to a not-so-hot rapcore style, which takes some getting used to (maybe New Zealand is just plagued by bad vocals in general, since other bands from there seem to have the same problem). Most of the lyrics are straight Christian stuff directed at God, spoken from first person, or directed to unbelievers, but some of the choruses are catchy in an awkward prog/rap sort of way.
With more experience, vocal lessons, and real production, Sonic Kollage would be a hot import. Right now, they're just an intriguing, definitely original band for those used to very limited recording budgets.
