The Book of Moons – Strange & Wylde Majick (2025)
Strange & Wylde Majick, the debut album from Norfolk-based duo The Book of Moons, features six original tracks. The album weaves gothic and progressive rock with dark folk, literary horror, and 1970s classic rock influences.
Leighton Melville (vocals) and Tim Lane (guitar, bass, keyboards) formed the project after years performing together in the Norwich alt-folk outfit the Punch House Band. Their fascination with arcane myth, ghost stories, and occult traditions sparked a pivot toward full-fledged rock storytelling. The band’s name references the 17th-century “Tom o’ Bedlam” ballad, and their lyrics nod to the spectral worldviews of Edgar Allan Poe and H. P. Lovecraft.
Each track functions as a self-contained story. Opener “I Burn” (Lane) is a rock song with a fine proggy guitar solo that reimagines the murder ballad as a pact with a demonic lover. Meanwhile, the title track is a hard rocker celebrating the force of inspiration.
“People of the Mountain, a hooky folk-rock song,” conjures a brooding Welsh landscape haunted by ancient forces.
“Shadow Song” expands from a longtime acoustic staple into a full progressive rock arrangement, telling the story of a traveler lured by an uncanny songstress.
“(Come to Me) In the Cold Small Hours,” a charming ballad with a fine guitar line, offers a ghostly lament for a lost love.
Closer “The Harlequin Rides,” a long suite, delivers sweeping progressive rock with captivating synth and epic guitar work. It is a depiction of the Wild Hunt, with inventive, layered instrumentation and a sense of mounting peril.
Drummer Tim Dew and producer Chris Bond (Lane’s collaborator in Stealing the Fire) round out the lineup.