There are certain nights which could very accurately be described as watching a band "pay their dues" and for Irish metal act Sinocence, tonight was definitely one of those nights, but what separates the men from the boys is how they cope with those situations. To say that the turn out for the final night of Sinocence's short Scottish tour was low would be the understatement of the year so far, however it is to the band's huge credit that they didn't let the extremely small crowd faze them one bit and turned in an energetic performance that illustrated that they have the songs and musical capability to hit the big time.

With the ferocity of The Almighty and the precision of Metallica, Sinocence fire out a tremendous selection of tracks from their first two albums with the twin vocal pairing of guitarist Moro and bassist Jim, adding another dimension to the songs that guarantee that the interest is never lost. It is easy to see that this is a four piece that have spent a lot of time in recent years playing live, as they are an impressively tight outfit, tracks like "God Complex" and "Eviscerate" really hit the mark, with massive swathes of guitar and thundering drums marking Sinocence out as band who really have the songs to go the distance. The twin guitar work adds a real punch to the sound and the solos are never just an excuse to show off, instead they embellish the songs and remain focused and sharp. Not even a faulty kick drum pedal could derail a band right at the top of their game and once the offending hardware was replaced with help from one of the support acts, Sinocence set about hammering their way through "Metalbox" which is as effective live as it is on the excellent Scar Obscura album and easily the highlight of the night. Sinocence are a young, hungry band capable of riffing it out with the big boys and the fact that they were both motivated and professional enough to give a performance as accomplished and convincing as this in front of a handful of people speaks volumes for how much they want to succeed and I very much hope they do!

I'm pleased to say that a quick chat with bassist Jim after the show revealed that the rest of the band's Scottish jaunt had been far better attended and with the band on their way to putting together album number three, hopefully they will return to greater acclaim soon.

Steven Reid