A new heavy metal band named Black Roses plays at a sleepy town called Mill Basin, causing the town's kids to turn into rockers. However, what the town does not know is that the band is also turning kids into demonic monsters. The soundtrack features many prominent bands at the time such as King Kobra, Tempest, Hallow's Eve, Lizzy Borden among others. Most of the music for the band "Black Roses" was performed by the members of King Kobra, with Mark Free on vocals, and Carmine Appice on drums.
Black Roses was higher budget than his previous works such as Zombie Nightmare which he wrote and Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare which he directed. After Rock 'n' Roll Nightmare which Fasano stated was shot for about 52,000 dollars and made "like $400,000 in sales." Following this, Fasano stated that Shapiro Glickenhaus came to the director offering him $400,000 to make Black Roses. Fasano contradicted himself during promotion of the film, stating the films budget was slightly under one-million American dollars. The film was shot in Canada as distributors would get a better tax deal for films when shot there. Fasano stated later that the film was shot in Hamilton under the recommendation of Paul Mitchnick as he thought it resembled an American industrial town. According to director John Fasano, the owners of the house in Toronto that was used for Black Roses were in the middle of a divorce. When arriving for the last day of shooting at the housethe crew arrived to it with all the doors locked and the lights out. The special effects artists hired for the film were Richard Platt and Michael Maddi after Fasano received a recommendation of them from Dick Smith. The special effects team felt they were pressured by the eight-week shooting schedule of the film. The opening scene with the demon band took three weeks to complete with Platt stating that team were "putting in 16 and 20-hour days."
The soundtrack was released on compact disc in 1988 by Metal Blade Records. In a review by Bradley Torreano of AllMusic, he commented on Black Rose's music stating that Drummer Carmine Appice, who put together the group and makes an appearance in the film, was weaker than his work with Rod Stewart and Ozzy Osbourne, and noting that the four songs contributed by Black Roses included "two dull party song" and that their tracks "are quite terrible" while noting that the power ballad "Paradise (We're on Our Way" was "oddly listenable".
Track listing
Tracklisting is sourced from the compact disc release.
