What’s the first thing that goes through your mind when I show you the picture of this band?

If you said something along the lines of: “This looks like the worst hip-hop group ever.”, “Word!“, or “Yo man, I dig.” Then you’re not alone. However, I’m willing to bet that almost no one thought, “THE LORDS of HEAVY METAL SOUL!” Find out who these guys are after the jump.

The dudes featured here are in a band called Stone Vengeance and they are, in-fact, full-on old-school thrash. It’s hard to miss these guys, mostly because they spam the shit out of the music classifieds on craigslist (don’t worry, it’s all good), but also because they’re totally not what you’d expect. Their Grandmaster Flash inspired photo above could be any band photo from 1986, and Stone has been playing gigs and thrashing the Bay Area for just as long. Their sound draws inspiration from the early NWOBHM bands and their look is, well, a look of their own.

Metal these days is a grab-bag of inspirations, looks and sounds. If metal has any definition of what it should be or what it should sound like, I guess it’s that there is no definition other than its loud, fast or any combination thereof. Check out the band’s cover of Black Metal, by Venom:

So with that, Stone Vengeance, keep on thrashing and we salute you – for Keepin’ it Real.