Aaron Grech September 8th, 2020 - 8:32 PM
The employees of Holy Roar Records have resigned from their positions, following allegations of rape and sexual misconduct levied against the label’s founder Alex Fitzpatrick. Many of the band’s associated with the label, most notably Rolo Tomassi, have released statements in response to these allegations. Rolo Tomassi have also announced their departure from the label, as a result of these allegations.
“We have spent the last 24 hours in horror of the allegations that have been made against Alex Fitzpatrick, the owner of Holy Roar,” the employees wrote. “The extremely serious allegations are against everything that myself, Sam, Wil, and our bands – stand for. We, the labels employees, are resigning from working with Holy Roar effective immediately. We are sorry for the long silence, it was a lot for us to process with our bands and personally and we found out the same time as the public. Alex will be making his own statement in due course.”
— Holy Roar (@holyroarrecords) September 8, 2020
Holy Roar Records was founded by Fitzpatrick and his girlfriend at the time Ellen Godwin in 2006, following his move to London. The label typically focused on hardcore, extreme metal and experimental rock artists throughout its run. Following its initial launch in 2006, the label garnered some success, putting out releases from Gallows, Touché Amoré, Apologies, I Have None and Down I Go throughout the years.
Several of the label’s bands including Fall of Messiah, Renounced, Svalbard, Palm Reader and Respire have announced that they are planning for the future and expressed solidarity with the survivors.
UPDATE (9/9: Fitzpatrick has resigned from the label effective immediately and has denied all of the allegations.
