Another essential Metalsploitation masterpiece is John Fasano's Black Roses (1988). The film lampoons those who believe rock is evil and is responsible for all of society's problems. The film opens with one of the greatest fictional metal groups ever, the Black Roses, performing on stage, performing the song "Me against the world." The band are monsters of rock… literally! The band members are all in monster, or demon, form. Near the end of the performance, the audience rushes out of the concert hall, and it turns out the audience are all monsters too.
We then go to what is possibly the present-day; where we find out that the Black Roses are beginning their first world tour in the small town of Mill Basin. All the youngsters can't wait for the four straight nights of shows, and believe that this will be the best thing to happen in the town's history. However, most of the fun-hating religious nuts want to try to stop the concerts before they happen. The leader of the religious nuts is Mrs. Miller, played by Julie Adams, the first of many all-star cameos on this movie and soundtrack. Mayor Farrnsworth (Ken Swofford of Fame) and the high school's English teacher, Matt Moorehouse (John Martin) are the only ones thinking logically and help convince everyone to let the shows go on.
Still unsure, they all attend the first concert to survey the situation. Lead singer Damian(Sal Viviano), drummer Vinny Apache (Carmine Appice) and the rest of the band come on stage dressed in all white, and begin performing an extremely soft power ballad called "Paradise (We're on our Way)". The elders are surprised that they turned out to be such a feather-light bunch and they leave. But once they leave, the lights go out, and then go back on and the band is dressed in more traditional black leather, and they perform a much more metal sounding "Rock Invasion". The kids go wild. Over the course of the next few concerts, strange things start happening. For example, during the following concert, the band performs their anthem, "Soldiers of the Night," while they zap audience members, turning them into zombie-like monsters.
Then, after one of the teenagers, Tony Ames (Anthony C. Bua), is picked on by his father (Vincent Pastore, later of the Sopranos fame), a Black Roses record on a turntable turns on by itself. When the father gets up to check it out, a spider-like creature pops out of one of the stereo speakers and drags him face first into the stereo speaker which emits a loud burp afterwards. Soon, even more mayhem and chaos happens in the streets of Mill Basin. What happens next? Watch it to find out!
Soundtrack:
The soundtrack was released by Metal Blade Records and Enigma on Vinyl, Cassette, and CD formats. It features a nice eclectic mix with a variety of all different kinds of metal from many popular bands as well as four original songs from the semi-fictional Black Roses band in the movie, which was a supergroup assembled for the project.
1) "Dance on Fire" by the Black Roses (written by Elliot Solomon, Alex Woltman, Mick Sweda, Mark Free, Carmine Appice, Chuck Wright, and Alex Masi)
A very kickass, classic metal song. It's very catchy, and can be heard toward the middle of the movie when Mr. Moorehouse is driving around Mill Basin. This song was rightfully released as a single on Metal Blade Records. The Black Roses lineup includes lead singer, Mark Free (King Kobra, Unruly Child, and Signal), drummer Carmine Appice (Vanilla Fudge, Rod Stewart, Blue Murder, King Kobra, and many more), guitarists Mick Sweda (King Kobra, Bullet Boys), Alex Masi (Masi), bassist Chuck Wright (Quiet Riot), Keyboardist Elliot Solomon, and additional background vocals By Dave Flynn, Jeff Clark, Alex Woltman, and Elliot Solomon.
2) "Soldiers of the Night" by Black Roses/Masi (written by Masi, Sweda, Woltman, Solomon, and Free)
A fantastic power metal anthem that the band performs in the "audience zapping" scene, also heard a few other times during the movie.
3) "I'm No Stranger" by Bang Tango (written by Bang Tango)
A pretty good sleazy funk metal song that later appeared on Bang Tango's 1989 live album, Live Injection under the title "I'm A Stranger". The song plays during the end credits. The Bang Tango lineup includes Joey Lastat on vocals, Mark Knight, Kyle Stevens, and Rick Semerjian (who was also Kyle Stevens's guitar tech) on guitars, Kyle on bass, and Tigg Ketler and Brett Greenburg on drums.
4) "Rock Invasion" by Black Roses/ Masi (written by Masi, Sweda Free and Solomon, and Woltman)
This song is an epic anthem with lots of great flashy shredding guitar work courtesy of Alex Masi. This is the song that the Black Roses perform in the movie once all the parents leave the concert. It was also rightfully released as a single on Metal Blade Records with the "B" side being "Hanging on" from Masi’s Downtown Dreamers album from around the same time.
5) "Paradise" (We're on our Way) by Black Roses (written by Solomon, Kinoin, and Free)
A beautiful ballad that the Black Roses play at the beginning of their first concert in Mill Basin while dressed in all white to trick the parents.
6) "Me against the World" by Lizzy Borden (written by Lizzy Borden and Gene Allen)
This is an epic teen angst anthem that is played many times in the movie, including during the very first concert scene in the beginning of the movie. The song originally appeared on Lizzy Borden's Visual Lies album from 1987, and was produced by Max Norman. It is slightly edited on the soundtrack with a chorus and part of the bridge taken out. The line-up for this song has Lizzy Borden on lead vocals, Joey Scott Harges on drums, Joe Holmes and Gene Allen on guitars, and Michael Davis on bass. This song was also Lizzy Borden's biggest hit single, and their best known song.
7) "Take it Off" by King Kobra (written by David Michael Phillips, Mark Free, and Carmine Appice)
A pretty cool 80's glam metal song that originally appeared on King Kobra's 1988 album III. The song plays during the "strip gin" scene in the movie. David Michael Phillips and Carmine Appice coproduced this track. King Kobra's line-up consists of Carmine Appice on drums and backup vocals, Johnny Edwards on lead vocals, David Michael Phillips on lead guitar and backup vocals, Jeff Northrop on rhythm guitar, Larry Hart on bass, Elliot Solomon on keyboards and backup vocals, and possibly Johnny Rod and maybe some others on additional backup vocals.
8) "King of Kool" by David Michael Phillips (written by David Michael Phillips)
King Kobra's David Michael Phillips contributes this cool blues metal song which plays during a fight scene earlier during the film, then again during the end credits. AC/DC fans will love this song which is coproduced by Phillips himself. David Michael Phillips plays all the guitars and bass on this song, Bryson Jones sings lead, and John Covington plays drums.
9) "Street life Warrior" by Tempest (written by Eddie Devane and Steve Sunnarborg)
A great power metal song with some kickass Randy Rhoads-esque guitar playing. For some reason, I don't recall hearing this song anywhere in the movie, but it still remains on the soundtrack. Tempest consists of Eddie Devane on vocals, Steve Sunnarborg on guitars, Bryan Allen on bass, and Mark Mireaux on drums.
10) "D.I.E." by Hallow's Eve (written by Stacey Anderson)
A superb progressive thrash metal song that originally appeared on Hallow's Eve's 1986 album Death and Insanity and is produced by Brian Slagel and Hallow's Eve. The song plays in the movie when youngster Jason Miller (Jesse D'Angelo) is throwing toys into the fireplace. On the soundtrack, the song is edited down from its original 6 minute length down to 3 minutes, with much of the middle instrumental jam taken out. Hallow's Eve consists of Stacey Anderson on vocals, David Stuart on guitars, Tommy Stewart on bass, and Tym Helton on drums.
The Black Roses soundtrack is a great eclectic album that was a huge hit with many metal fans, and helped the movie and soundtrack become big hits. While most of the early to mid-80's Metalsploitation films and soundtracks had a raw, unpolished vibe to them (which is cool), The Black Roses movie and soundtrack has a more polished and slick vibe to it, but at the same time, still has lots of power, energy, and emotion to it, which is cool too. I especially found it very brazen for an album containing mostly hair metal and power metal songs to end with a speed metal/thrash metal song. The soundtrack was mostly produced by Alex Woltman and Elliot Solomon who also did the score for the movie too.
Fans of John Fasano's earlier Metalsploitation films Zombie Nightmare and Rock N Roll Nightmare will love this monster movie too. Black Roses is truly up there as one of the greatest metalsploitation/Heavy Metal Horror films of all time. It has lots of cool characters, great actors including many notable cameos, a great soundtrack, an interesting plot, great lines, and lots of rad creature effects. This one also holds a special place in my heart. I've become friends with many people who worked on the movie and soundtrack, including John Fasano, writer Cindy Cirile, Frank Dietz, who plays a teenage fan Johnny Pratt and a Black Roses guitarist, Jesse D'Angelo, Mick Sweda, David Michael Phiilips, John Covington, and many more. I've heard many cool stories from then about the making of the movie; such as John Fasano saying that most of the concert scenes in the movie were shot at a Canadian movie theater after hours, and that for his role, they tried to dye Jesse's natural hair red or blond, nearly destroying it in the process. And some of the people who worked on the movie even sent me some props that were used in the film! Such as Frank Dietz sending me the actual customized jacket He wore in the movie, and John Fasano sending me not only two of the concert tee shirts from the movie, but one of the John Dods created zombified audience member puppets used in the movie!! I feel truly honored.
I hope that someday there will be a Black Roses reunion tour where the band gets back together and performs the whole soundtrack live. This might happen because John Fasano has expressed interest in doing a remake or sequel or rewrite of the film in the future. Hopefully all of this will happen, but in the meantime, you can get the special edition DVD from Synapse films with bonus features such as a commentary track, footage from audition tapes, trailers, and much more. Check it out, rock on, and enjoy!
Soundtrack recorded at Pasha Music House, Baby-O studio, and Pacific Sound studios. Movie filmed in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada and New York.
For full cast and crew, click here.
Billy Larouqe, HMS
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