AVENGED SEVENFOLD Donates Money To Help Laid-Off Magazine Staff

According to The Pulse Of Radio, AVENGED SEVENFOLD has posted a tribute online to long-running heavy metal magazine Metal Hammer, along with its sister publications Classic Rock and Prog magazine, following the news earlier this week that their parent company, Team Rock, had gone into the British equivalent of bankruptcy. Some 73 staffers have lost their jobs just before Christmas with no severance pay, with the future of the 35-year-old Metal Hammer and the other publications in doubt.

After explaining that years ago magazines were the only means through which the members of AVENGED SEVENFOLD, then just fans themselves, could find information about their favorite acts, the band wrote: "Now that [Metal Hammer] is gone, it pushes metal and rock even further away from the average consciousness. Some believe in keeping heavy music underground, we don't. This music means so much to so many including us. Our music should be inclusive and losing Metal Hammer is a major blow to all of us."

A crowdfunding site has been set up to raise money for the staffers who lost their jobs, with AVENGED adding: "We have met many great people through the years at Team Rock and we are sure they will find great jobs soon enough. For now though, we hope you can help out the people who have dedicated their lives to promoting our favorite type of music through this crowdfunding site. These are good people that don't deserve this just before Christmas. We have donated £1000 and hope you can give a little if you can find the means."

The campaign, started by ORANGE GOBLIN frontman Ben Ward, has raised nearly $77,000 at press time, donated by over 2,700 supporters. The campaign has reached 309 percent of its initial goal of $25,000.

A skeleton crew of just seven remains on duty at Team Rock while a team of administrators make a decision to sell, liquidate or restructure the company.