Album Review: Beyond The Palisade

The Advocators’ Mark Bruce and Leroy Brown are back with their sophomore effort, Beyond The Palisade. Another album from the infamous small town of Mangatoroto, a left-turn outpost situated at the bottom of Northland, or as the locals like to call it… The South.

There are a few too many artists hailing from the hills of Maungaturoto that it’s undeniable to reference what should be called ‘The Maungaturoto Sound’. Erny Belle, Albi & The Wolves, Elliot Brown, The Boxcar Rattle, and, as of the last few years, The Advocators. All who make a sterling line-up of musicians to front their own music festival… Mangystock.

Beyond The Palisade picks up right where we first heard The Advocators back in 2024. While their first album was brimming with a dark creative punch, the boys have clearly got
the songwriting bug and have pushed their songwriting over and above to create something wholly vintage and ready to take to the stage.

After a brief little tinker on the instruments of its 20 second intro Sundry Notes Of Sundry, One Last Ride officially opens the album in fantastic ‘we’re back’ fashion. Lead singer/multi-instrumentalist Leroy Brown puts his vocals on the line, displaying his signature vibrato drawl. We’re in evil country here, with a sinister banjo riff that drives the song down a blackened road to hell. One Last Ride sets the tone for the album, which is an extremely dark and catchy journey, bursting with surprise, sadness and some good old-fashioned stomp’n.

Broken and its follow-up Big Tide are both something you’d hear straight out of David Lynch’s Twin Peaks Roadhouse. Mark Bruce shows off his incredibly haunting guitar playing on these tracks, paired extremely well with some organ thrown in to blow out the full sound and scope of the songs. This isn’t the first time the Maungaturoto sound has felt Lynchian. Maungaturoto’s own Erny Belle summoned the spirit of Julee Cruise on her sophomore album track Midnight Madness back in 2023.

I Ain’t Changed is so satisfyingly catchy and destined to be a crowd favourite. Leroy knows he has created gold here as he frantically switches to his trusty harmonica to battle Mark’s electric guitar for the solo. Leroy has taken off his shirt to reveal the muscles of a great frontman. The follow-up, Another Me, continues the non-stop string of hits to maybe the biggest surprise of the album yet. Baked in a 1950’s kitchen, it’s essentially a vaudeville country classic with a cheeky chorus change-up that makes it hard to believe it was written in the 2020’s. Hank Williams would be proud.

On the final song, Picture Of You, ever the wordsmith, Leroy Brown ends the album with the poetic mastery to make a man cry.

“Somewhere I still have a picture of you, somewhere you still have a piece of my heart.”

This is a love song with such a satisfying chorus to hear, but with such sadness attached. An incredibly delicate song to bow out on an album that feels so fresh and doused in its own vintage.

It sounds like the boys had a ton of fun making this record, from its inception to the studio. There’s such a variety of songs here, crafted to perfection, that truly feels like a train ride through the Wild West. I can’t wait to see The Advocators hit the road for its release.

Albums to complement The Advocators – Beyond The Palisade

Tundra – The Abigails – 2014
Tucson Safari – Kid Congo & Naim Amor – 2025
East Grand Blues (EP) – The Greenhornes – 2005