Yesterday, we learned that Metal Hammer publisher Team Rock is liquidating its assets as the company prepares to close. That’s bad news for metal in print media to be sure, but even worse is that 73 people with homes and families are out in the cold a week before Christmas. That really sucks, so this is the kind of situation where the kindness and community in the metal world comes out. Orange Goblin frontman Ben Ward launched a crowdfunding campaign to help out those displaced employees last night – read his statement here:

Today, 73 members of the Team Rock staff were told that the company is going into liquidation and that they are being made redundant with immediate effect with ZERO pay. These are good, hard-working, committed people that through Metal Hammer, Classic Rock, Prog Rock, TeamRock Radio and more, have supported the rock and heavy metal scene in this country for decades and now we, the rock community, need to pull together to help give something back.

Please spare what you can so that everyone may enjoy the festive spirit.

That’s great on its own, but even more fantastic is that as of the time of this writing, the campaign has raised over £17,000 of its £20k goal in a matter of just a few hours. Our best wishes go out to the Team Rock staff this holiday season – this is a great gesture on Ward’s part and this will hopefully do some good. Meanwhile, visitors to the Teamrock website will find a sad official notice stating that the website “will be unavailable for the foreseeable future.”