In The Name Of...

In the Name Of… Black Sabbath
By Tom Carr
Eddie Janes bears a striking resemblance to Ozzie Osbourne, which instantly puts In The Name Of above other Black Sabbath tribute bands.
Janes has been stopped on the street by people telling him he looks like the legendary heavy metal frontman. When he drops his Midwest accent and goes into a British semi-mumble, the transformation is nearly complete.
Put him with a tight band that covers Sabbath to a tee on a stage amid skulls with lighted red eyes and Janes singing in a high-pitched, metal wail, and you’re getting eerily close to the real thing.
Janes sings for In The Name Of, which will play a show at Ground Zero at Streeters Center on Saturday, April 2.

METAL MEN
The band behind Janes consists of three guys who have been playing together since they were teenagers in Flint, listening to Rush, Black Sabbath and UFO.
They are Paul Saylor, who plays a searing metal guitar; Dave Hall, who plays an expert bass with all the licks and physical moves; and Keith Christian, perfectly punctuating it all on drums. Hall lives in Cedar, while the others live in southeastern Michigan.
The three got together with Janes at a Houghton Lake gig a couple years ago. He was there with an Ozzie tribute band, which specialized in post-Sabbath, Ozzie solo numbers. Janes had been trying to talk them into working some Black Sabbath tunes into their act.
“Every time we’d go out, we’d hear people yelling for the Black Sabbath, and they didn’t want to do the Black Sabbath,” Janes said. “I think they just really didn’t want to play it. The solos were way longer.”
Meanwhile, Christian the drummer was singing for the Sabbath tribute band, though he doesn’t look anything like Osbourne.
So Eddie hopped off the Crazy Train and got Paranoid.

CHRISTIAN INFLUENCE
Christian thought of the name, but originally considered calling the band In The Name Of . . . God, Hall said.
“We decided we can’t do that because it might turn some people away,” Hall said.
While the band members all say they’re devout Christians and will gladly talk to anyone who asks them about it, they don’t reveal it in their performances.
The second question that may occur is: Isn’t Black Sabbath thought by many to be satanic?
The members of the group say that’s a misperception.
“The media wanted to label them as something and they were labeled as a satanist band,” Hall said. “I think what Ozzie’s trying to do is warn people of the evils and the deception of Satan.”
The main thing is, this is an entertaining band to watch.
When they recently played at the Southside Hideout in Buckley, they used a fog machine and had mysterious cloaked figures walk onto the stage and light candles between numbers.
The group emphasizes that they’re a “show band” and aims to take its production to the larger clubs here and elsewhere.

In The Name Of will perform at Ground Zero on Saturday, April 2 with guests Skullcrusher and Evershine. Doors open at 9 p.m. Tickets are $5 and you must be 18 to attend.


- Northern Express