The Image Just Happened, Rockers Say : Band: Though categorized as “glam-rockers,” the five members of Orange County group Onyxx say their music is multifaceted.

They are on equal footing with many of the best aspiring rock bands on the Los Angeles music scene and believe that they are ahead of the rest.

They are five teen-agers from Orange County who are excelling in a music world dominated by bands that have been around much longer than their 1 1/2-year career.

They are Scott Casey, Craig Williams, Abin Achrekar, Adam Glauser and Pat Romo--and their band is Onyxx.

Onyxx’s music is “hard and rough-edged with melodic vocals, separating us from everyone else,” said Casey, the lead singer and a junior at Esperanza High School in Anaheim.

Although considered “glam-rockers,” “we never classified ourselves as a glam-rock group--other people classified us,” Casey said.

While their manager, Candice Scott, said the boys remind her of the band Poison, they believe they’re more like Van Halen or their fellow L.A. rockers, Extreme. Either way, they insist their image isn’t calculated.

“We didn’t plan on the image we have,” said Williams, lead guitarist and, like all but Casey, a junior at Canyon High School in Anaheim Hills. “Scott is glam, his voice is glam, his style is glam . . . and what the singer’s image is, is what the band’s image is.”

Added Casey: “A lot of people shoot us down because of the way we look, but we seem to do well with the opposite sex and the Hollywood scene.”

Though Onyxx has yet to sign a record company contract, they say they are close. But they refuse to allow themselves to believe it until it actually happens.

“You can never say you have a contract until it’s in your hands,” Casey said. “Every band thinks they are going to get signed, but we have a gimmick: We are 10 years younger than other bands on the (Sunset) Strip.”

Said Williams: “We have a good sense of appeal to the record companies. They seem to be looking for New Kids on the Block in metal.”

Casey, who along with lifelong friend Williams founded Onyxx, has never had a singing lesson and has been writing what he calls “joke songs” since age 6.

“Joke songs are songs we wrote as kids that dealt with subjects that we dealt with at that age,” Casey said.

At age 13, they put together their first band, Stone Cloth. When Achrekar joined the group on bass guitar a year later, they changed their name to Devolution.

Their first performance was before an audience of seven friends in a room at Williams’ house, where their homemade stage was decorated with Christmas lights. The next year, Glauser joined the band on drums, and they became Onyxx.

Williams said a science class helped them come up with the group’s name. “I saw it in a textbook from school,” he said.

“ Onyx is a multifaceted stone,” their manager, Scott, noted. “And as you can see, these guys are each multifaceted.”

They first performed professionally at 15, playing in a club in Los Angeles, where they have served as both supporting band and headliner. They insist, however, that they prefer to open shows because it allows their younger fans to see them and then get home before curfew.

They take pride in making their stage show energetic--”just because we’re young doesn’t mean we can’t give 110%,” Glauser said--and they enjoy interacting with their audience.

“They’re very influential, and I expect them to be role models,” said Scott, who was introduced to the band when her teen-age daughter, Pamela, brought Glauser to their house in Anaheim. “Basically, these are good kids. Kids can look at these guys and relate to them because they don’t have attitudes.

“When you look at the 453 bands in L.A. and you see Onyxx, you see they’re different.”

The guys agree, saying they are a one-of-a-kind band with a unique sound and style.

“We’re an original band,” Williams said. “We have our own style of music that is incomparable to other artists.”

They have preferences, however, when it comes to other musicians, with Stryper, Eddie Van Halen, Jimi Hendrix and Bon Jovi heading the list.

But Glauser insisted, “We only sound like us.”

Without a demo record, Onyxx counts on the strength of its live show. Casey and Williams write most of the band’s songs, and they perform only original material in concert.

“Where our lyrics are concerned,” Glauser said, “we’re more than just love and sex.”

The band, which has played in such clubs as the Roxy, Troubadour, Marquee and Whiskey, has no current local dates on its calendar but is planning a summer tour of Japan and Canada.

The guys are looking forward to the future, but haven’t forgotten their not-so-long-ago past.

Playing one of their earliest gigs at an L.A. club called Rock Around the Clock in August, 1989, Casey was sick with the flu and the band floundered. Their audience that night, composed of mostly speed-metal fans, heckled them mercilessly.

Later that month, Onyxx returned to the same stage and, this time, turned in what they believed to be their best performance to date. Afterward, they autographed more than 200 of their promotional pictures.

“To me, managing this band and seeing it perform live is like being a mom when you have friends over and your baby takes its first step,” said Scott, who saw Onyxx perform for the first time that night. “It’s a natural high for me to see them on stage with all the kids yelling for them.”

As for education, Achrekar said, “No matter what, I will never quit school. I will go to college also. . . .”

Said Williams: “The band is the band, school is school. They are two different parts of our lives, and we’re able to balance them.”