JAZAN WILD – Jazan Wild’s Carnival Of Souls

Jazan Wild is a budding young musician who has devised a novel musical idea … hell, a package concept for that matter. You see, his new release, Jazan Wild’s Carnival Of Souls, is quite unique and is something of a soundtrack, but not your typical soundtrack. Instead of being a musical narration for a film score, this CD is a soundtrack for a comic book; you know the media that made the likes of Superman, Spawn, Batman, etc. famous? This particular comic book was also an idea contrived by Wild, and luckily he found the right label in the newly created Markosia Music, a subsidiary of Markosia Enterprises Ltd. Markosia also happens to be a comic book publisher (Markosia Comics), which makes this whole relationship with Wild the perfect match for both himself and Markosia. Markosia has bought so much into Wild’s concept that they are not ruling out a movie, video game, BBC TV show, etc. The package is even sweetened by the fact that Wild has backing from the Kiss camp, due in part to Producers Bob Kulick and Curt Cuomo. Cuomo was actually involved in the writing for Kiss’ Carnival Of Souls release (which happens to be Wild’s favorite Kiss album), as well as providing writing assistance to Wild on this release. These relationships have even earned Wild seats on world-wide Kiss Expos, Conventions, etc.

The Comic Book And Story

The story involves a young boy (coincidentally named “Jazan Wild”) who takes a small plane and visits a Carnival with his Mother. “Jazan” is so enamored by the Carnival that he doesn’t notice it’s quite sleazy, and even looks past the overweight, nightmarish Clown who hosts it’s “Freak Show.” On the return plane trip home, the aircraft is struck by lightning, crashes, and only the young “Jazan” survives. Two newly orphaned tiger cubs, one that mixes blood with our young boy, adopts “Jazan.”

Consequently, “Jazan” grows up with the tiger cub brothers and evolves into a “Wildman” version of a modern day Tarzan, falls in love, and has surreal dreams about the Clown, Carnival, and his own existence.

All in all, quite a compelling story all wrapped up in a nice, glossy, colorful, high-grade stock comic book. The only minor problem it suffers from is that the main character will undeniably strike up memories of Marvel Comics Ka-Zar in devoted comic book geeks. Additionally, the Freak Show Clown will no doubt remind Video Gamers of the clown in the Twisted Metal video game series. The Clown is certainly an entertaining support character, with lines along the lines of … “Pssst! C’mere! Don’t worry kid, it can’t hurt you! Not really!” Pushing aside these similarities, this appears to be the launch of a stunning series that is scheduled to publish its third edition in March 2006.

The Music

The CD’s packaging is glamorous … it’s on glossy stock paper, endowed with full lyrics, and adorned with comic book artwork in the CD’s book as well as on the disc’s label. Jazan Wild, the musician, is literally a one-man band on this release, as he runs the gamut from delivering vocals to playing guitars, drums, etc. The drumming suffers slightly, and seems to be simplistic and steady; sometimes almost like an unfaltering drumbeat being delivered by “Jungle Natives.” The music itself is best described as Hard Rock, much in a vein akin to some of Kiss’ straight-ahead Rock ‘N’ Roll. Jazan does a commendable job on vocals (sounding almost Russ Ballard-like at times), and has managed to meld in a sufficient number of sound clips to help draw the listener into the underlying story line.

Unfortunately, the music ends up feeling only slightly above average, with no tracks standing out as complete knockout tracks or attention-grabbers. Even a cover of Kiss’ classic “Rock N’ Roll All Night” does very little to inspire eclectic gusto. One has to wonder if Wild took on too much of the musicianship duties himself and if the release would have made a stronger impact using a full-time band. To his credit, very few musicians would undertake as much as Wild did musically for a freshman release.

There’s no true straight-line verdict on this one. As a comic book/soundtrack package, the artistic concept is brilliant and over the top. As a musical effort, it stands on its own as being a mediocre first effort. If marketed as a combined package (a digital version of the comic is on the CD by the way), then comic book fans stand the best chance of truly enjoying this (i.e., reading the story, listening to the soundtrack). For pure music lovers looking for their latest Hard Rock “fix,” you might have to look elsewhere. Listening to the release, you do get a sense that this isn’t the best yet to come from Jazan Wild and that his finest will eventually be on its way!

Lineup

Jazan Wild – Vocals, Drums, Bass, Keyboards, Rhythm & Lead Guitars
Jason Citro – Keyboards, Rhythm Guitar (on select songs)
Curt Cuomo – Back Up Vocals on “The Snake”
Sharon Barnes – Back Up Vocals (on select songs)
Bob Kulick – Executive Producer