Sunderland heavy metal band Yersin announce new album

Sunderland heavy metal outfit Yersin release their second album, The Scythe Is Remorseless, next month.

The three-piece group consists of Rob Scott on guitars, drummer Chris Mallan and vocalist Chris Storey. All three musicians are from Sunderland and in their 30s. They have been together for around four years.

Like all good bands, Yersin are named after a Swiss microbiologist, Alexandre Yersin, discoverer of the bacteria responsible for the bubonic plague.

Following their 2020 debut album Guilt, The Scythe Is Remorseless is a seven-track affair, recorded in No Studios in Manchester. It has been taken up by Hull-based label Trepanation Recordings. The band writes all its own material.

Rob said: "It's a loose concept album around a film from the 1950s called The Seventh Seal. The album's artwork is based around it.

"We recorded the album, then Trepantation said they would take it on.

"It's a quintessentially British heavy metal record, influenced by old school metal like Black Sabbath and the Birmingham stuff like Napalm Death and Newcastle bands like Venom. It's an amalgam of British heavy metal styles; a lot of the older sounds.

"How to describe the record? It's fast-paced and has been incredibly edited. It only has a 25-minute run time, so it's had all the fat stripped off it. It's been mixed and mastered by the best we could get hold of. People think it's great.

"If you like heavy metal, or extreme punk rock or hardcore; there's not many bands from Sunderland doing it, if any, so it's a novelty.

"It's a bit of a passion project. We have no real hopes of appearing on Top of the Pops or whatever."

The release date is January 10 and there will be a listening party at Otto, the café next door to music venue The Bunker on Stockton Road, at 7.30pm on Friday, January 5.

Yersin also embark upon a nationwide tour in 2024 with details to be announced and hopes that a North East show can be booked for March.

The Scythe Is Remorseless can be bought in several formats on the Trepanation website where listeners can also hear the title track and watch the accompanying video.