I think it is extremely hard to stay really independent when running such a site. Not only for financial reasons but you have to have good connections, you have to get information earlier than others, you have to get promo copies etc. If you piss off too much people from the melodic rock scene, you simply cannot make a living running such a site.
That said, I don't think that Andrew is getting paid by record companies for his reviews. He seems to only like a certain kind of melodic rock and if a record hits this spot, it is going to get high scores, no matter how good or bad it really is. Other records, that don't fit into his kinda narrow niche are not going to score good, regardless of quality. At least that's my impression.