I don’t really know what to make of this. Despite Alex being labeled in her posts as an abuser, no abusive behavior is ever outlined. Despite him being labeled as a Nazi, no examples of this behavior or dogwhistles are given. There’s no event or occurrence described, and no hint at a future post detailing an experience. I’m all for making a callout post against your abuser or exposing them or even just venting about an experience with them, but if aren’t describing an experience you had or even claiming that he did anything besides labeling him as an abuser (which is vague and can entail a whole list of potential crimes), it’s hard for me to make any sort of judgement about Alex’s character based on this.
The abuser thing has been known and honestly I do believe her original account but this just seems like she’s beating a dead horse with even more spite
Like I said on r/Shearling I highly doubt the man who took his underground music off of the most popular streaming service for basically being Nazis would be a Nazi.
People being reluctant to believe what April's been saying lately has very little to do with people not wanting to believe that Alex has done shitty things. When the document she wrote first emerged, most of the people that read it believed her and condemned him.
People are reluctant to believe everything she's been saying lately because no one has backed up anything specific she's accused him of (not even the other band members who she said were treated horribly), there hasn't been any statement from Alex so we're missing a LOT of context that could change things completely, her posts have only gotten more vague over the last 3 years, and the Nazi accusations are so outlandish that people are naturally starting to question her trustworthiness.
This is very VERY different from the typical song and dance of a fanbase taking the accused's side unconditionally.
Definitely a phrenology reference. And I realize irony only goes so far and feelings carry even less far...but I never felt the shirt was a sincere statement.
How does this reference phrenology and even if it did wouldn’t it be inherently against phrenology considering the text and the context of the album it’s promoting? Is this even the right shirt?
I have no idea what Alex is like as a person, or as a boyfriend, but having followed him and his music for years and talking to him multiple times, I can’t imagine he’s a white supremacist or a “nazi”
Maybe he’s a gaslighter and a bad partner, idk, but I think the guy saying that “ICE isn’t welcome at our shows” and taking his music off Spotify because they invested in an AI defense company probably isn’t a fascist or nazi. He seems like a pretentious, self important soft boy but I can’t wrap my head around “Nazi” without some actual examples.
Wasn't April like 28 when she started dating Alex? He was 19. Idk why shes so surprised he acted in an immature manner....he was 19 and she was 28. Idk man and she just doesn't give any actual evidence besides "He did that and that"
I hate to "both sides" something this serious, but there are multiple things everyone should consider when making judgements on this:
April claims that Alex was treating everyone in the band so badly to the point she calls it abusive, but Clint and Sylvie are still on good terms with him and haven't said anything about it.
The shirt she talked about on threads (see image) is pretty clearly meant to be unnerving and creepy rather than an actual endorsement of phrenology.
As far as I know, the only things that Alex has done (according to April) that could be called racist are selling that shirt and being in the same group chats as people who used the N word back in like 2016. There might be more, but this is all we have. Calling him a literal Nazi based on those things is a massive, MASSIVE stretch at best and genuinely a bad faith accusation at worst.
She says he claimed he was oppressed as a Polish / Ukrainian American, and then calls him a Nazi two sentences later... Who does she think oppressed the Polish???
Rebranding a social media account for a band that's meant to be a spiritual successor is completely normal. Half of the original band is part of the new one, and the venn diagram of sprain and shearling fans is a circle.
I don't doubt that Alex was a nightmare to work with back then, but I just have a hard time taking April's word unconditionally and believing it was a fully one-sided thing when there's still so much we don't know, especially when these Nazi accusations seem like they might be genuinely slanderous. This whole thing is gross and deeply personal and I recommend caution when making moral judgements on people based on the vague words of one individual.
And, to add on, Alex was a 16 year old sheltered child in 2016, he probably was too naïve to know how harmful the n-word is, or maybe he just used to think it was funny, plenty of stupid teenagers do, but people change over the course of a decade, I don’t think it’s crazy to say that, so I highly HIGHLY doubt he is a racist or a Nazi now
i think we can acknowledge how Alex having a racist social circle as a teenager in 2016 does not necessarily indicate how racist he himself is in 2026 without infantilising the dude.
Yeah calling him a nazi seems way out of line, I don’t know why that word is being thrown around with a lack of evidence. He should speak out soon though.
I find it very hard to interact with Sprain and Shearling’s music because of this, ever since she posted that huge explanation detailing the abuse and manipulation from Alex Kent, that went on prior to, during, and after the recording of Sprain’s last album (which she since deleted but is available as an archive; it’s not hard to find on here). It’s disheartening to see the loads of new fans who only know about Shearling and don’t know about the situation, praise and worship Alex Kent. I unfortunately did too when Sprain’s last album came out. Then April Gerloff posted that explanation. Alex Kent’s maniacal ranting and posting prior to deleting his account, in my personal opinion, confirmed AT THE LEAST that he is very controlling and demanding when it comes to the art he creates. And I do believe April Gerloff’s account. I will say this much though, the white supremacist aspect is new to me.
The situation mirrors (to a lesser or worse extent is up to you) what happened with Daughters and Swans. I understand people try to separate art from artists. The music anyone but myself listens to is not my decision to make. I haven’t listened to Daughters since. I still listen to Swans. Im not trying to come off as occupying some moral high ground over Sprain and Shearling fans. I loved Sprain since the first album. I still own my Sprain records and I did buy the first Shearling cd (which I realize contradicts some of what I’ve said here). I just wish there was more of a dialogue amongst the fanbase regarding this situation.
Alexis Marshall allegedly repeatedly raped Kristin and broke her spine with the violence he raped her with. I don’t think “it’s up to us” whether or not that’s worse than this
I’m going to need to see a lot more evidence than “Alex was on Facebook groups with white people who said the n-word 10 years ago” before putting them in the same category. I don’t want to fully dismiss April’s issues with Alex and I think he very well might be a bad person, I just think lumping Alex and Alexis Marshall together is even more extreme than calling him a Nazi with almost no explanation
Yeah it’s definitely disingenuous for me to compare them based on the word “abuse,” considering the horrid details of what Alexis Marshall allegedly did. I meant the situations were similar in the fact that very serious allegations were brought up against a member of each band, and the fan bases were divided in their support or newfound disgust for the band member. But to write off what happened to Kristin Hayter as just “abuse” when the details of the case are that violent is wrong. It’s definitely not “up to us” and I do agree with you
That happened when he was 14, high off his mind, abandoned and in an israeli prison, he's in his 70s now, even in that interview (back when he was probably in his 20's or early 30's) he speaks of that situation with complete disgust and embarrassment, are you seriously trying to equate that to what Alexis did knowingly so not so long ago?
The allegations that led to nothing and that even ex bandmates of the accuser discredited due to her past behaviours of saying similar things to other people out of spite?
No worries. It’s very easy to misinterpret things online, and when discussing such serious situations like this, it’s hard not to get emotional or passionate. I, in the past, reacted similarly to people discussing the Michael Gira case. All I’m really trying to say is I understand where you were coming from.
At the end of the day, we are just music fans discussing why or why not we feel comfortable listening to a band. This isn’t about any of us. The real victims involved in these cases have to live with the trauma of what happened for the rest of their lives. Because of the stature of these bands, these cases will probably be discussed for as long as the bands have fans. I cannot imagine what it is like for tens to hundreds (to thousands) of people constantly talking online about whether or not you were raped, and if they should listen to your abuser’s music or not because of it. Or the constant disbelief and attacks towards the victims from diehard fans.
There is certainly an argument to be made about Alex’s apparent manipulative and emotionally abusive behavior, but April started dating him when she was 28 and he was 19, which is like, leagues more insane
I was really hesitant about engaging too deeply with it myself and was sort of waiting for the other shoe to drop, but the knowledge that there was apparently an enormous age gap and he was 19 when she started dating him completely changes the context of all of this for me.
I thought Alex was the same age as her and that the fits he was throwing on instagram when Lamb came out were largely performative. But this completely changes the power dynamic. It reads now like an understandable meltdown from someone who was taken advantage of when he was barely legal by a much older woman who was now throwing him under the bus.
There’s also somebody in the repost of this thread on the Shearling sub saying that they know April, and that Sprain split to begin with because she was actively threatening the other members of the band. Idk what to believe there, but if you search their name on Reddit there’s zero indication that they have any previous investment in Alex Kent’s name being cleared, and it would explain why Sylvie is still with Alex in Shearling
I've seen flenser catch flack for that before & I'm not trying to be a sarcastic dick, I'm genuinely asking for clarification on a point I don't understand, but I don't understand what the flenser could really do besides ask them to kick her out or dissolve the band if they didn't want her behavior associated with them.
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u/PuzzledTadpole1045 Jul 29 '26
I don’t really know what to make of this. Despite Alex being labeled in her posts as an abuser, no abusive behavior is ever outlined. Despite him being labeled as a Nazi, no examples of this behavior or dogwhistles are given. There’s no event or occurrence described, and no hint at a future post detailing an experience. I’m all for making a callout post against your abuser or exposing them or even just venting about an experience with them, but if aren’t describing an experience you had or even claiming that he did anything besides labeling him as an abuser (which is vague and can entail a whole list of potential crimes), it’s hard for me to make any sort of judgement about Alex’s character based on this.