by Lori329

Overture is the first full length album released by Kazha, a Los Angeles-based Japanese rock band (complete artist profile: Kazha; interview with vocalist Kazuha Oda: Getting to know Kazuha Oda from Kazha). It came out in April 2010 but I’ll be honest -- I had never heard of Kazha until about August when I started researching the group for their artist profile here on AznLover. Right away their music appealed to me because I have a soft spot for goth metal and melodic hard rock. The more I listened while trying to understand Kazha’s artistic vision, the more their songs drew me in, until I finally had to purchase their CD.

Many of the tracks on Overture evoke scenes from a dark fairy tale, with recurring themes of fantasy, deception, and struggle. But that’s not the whole story. It doesn’t take long to realize that Kazha is never just one thing, and there are also moments of hope and encouragement on this album. The group has an original sound, but if I had to compare them to other bands I’d say they have some things in common with Italy’s Lacuna Coil, especially the latter’s earlier melodic work up through the Comalies album. For a more mainstream analogy, probably the closest comparison would be to Evanescence (minus the piano), due mainly to both bands’ use of female vocals over heavy guitars.
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