Andrew Smith--Webmaster, and the creator of UMR.

This thing started out as a simple side project/time filler called "Manalishi's Heavy Metal Album Reviews" back in June of 1997. In the page's first six months of existence, around 1600 metalheads visited "Manalishi's"-- and that was without listing on any major search engine, and without any banners or advertisements. Remember -- the internet was still taking baby steps at this time, in terms of the mass public using it on an everyday basis. "Cool", I thought. So I decide to go bigger, and after acquiring the "metal-reviews" domain, the overall numbers from late '97 to early 2000 stood at over one million visitors (and has continued to grow each year) -- a true testament that the metal community is still alive and well.

As many early, "longtime" UMR visitors will remember, I had (for four years) held a job as a high school English teacher and football coach. In 2000 I switched (school) jobs, and headed up the discipline program of a high school for five years. In 2005 I returned to the classroom... five years of dealing with the dregs of (my corner of) society started getting tiresome and repetitive, so it was time for a change. As things turned out, "change" ended up being a return to the classroom -- and thus far has been very rewarding.

In July of 2006 I married the most wonderful woman out there -- the wait was definitely worth it! :)

As for the current status of the page: As of late 2007, the page has largely become an archive. Along with my regular 5-day-a-week job, we also have two other business ventures that occupy a lot of time. And unlike UMR, these have a positive cash flow... so they must take priority at this time.

As always has been the case, UMR is simply a hobby of mine, and something I enjoy doing. Hopefully at some point new reviews and content can be added. In the meantime, enjoy the "back catalog".
Have fun, I hope some of it is helpful, and drop a line anytime.

--Andrew