Metal Blade Records (1988)
What could be better than an 80s horror movie about a metal band who turn out to be evil monsters? Well, the soundtrack to that movie, for one thing.
Heavy metal and horror movies were closely linked in the 80s - not only classics like Trick Or Treat with its great Fastway soundtrack and Wes Craven's Shocker (Bonfire, Megadeth, Saraya etc) but also the one-off contributions of bands like W.A.S.P. and Vinnie Vincent's Invasion to various high profile movies. Therefore it says something for the profile of Black Roses that the biggest stars on this album are probably Lizzy Borden and soundtrack regulars King Kobra.
Nevertheless, it's a quality album; the songs played by the evil creatures were actually performed by ex- King Kobra vocalist Mark Free, guitar wizard Alex Masi, Carmine Appice and others, and their songs range from the predictably attitude-laden 'Rock Invasion' to the hair metal ballad 'Paradise (We're On Our Way)'. Other great contributions are Lizzy Borden's 'Me Against The World', Bang Tango's 'I'm No Stranger' and (slightly heavier), Tempest's excellent 'Streetlife Warrior'. Sadly, Tempest were never to get signed to a label although their 1988 demo sometimes surfaces on eBay as a one sided four-track vinyl EP (including Streetlife Warrior).
TempestThrash is even represented by Hallow's Eve's not-bad 'D.I.E.'. One of the things (apart from overall ineptitude, poor direction, lack of suspense etc etc) that makes the film itself disappointing is that much of the music is barely featured; even King Kobra's sleazy masterpiece 'Take It off' is essentially thrown away.
Black Roses is still enjoyable if you like Z-grade, barely horrific horror movies (there is virtually no gore in the film although the monster effects aren't bad), but compared to Trick Or Treat (or even Swedish glam metal band Easy Action's almost as amateurish 1985 classic Blood Tracks) it's pretty dull. But the soundtrack is a masterpiece.
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