IN THIS MOMENT's MARIA BRINK Says Having ROB HALFORD Guest On 'Ritual' Is 'An Honor'

IN THIS MOMENT singer Maria Brink says that having Rob Halford guest on the band's new album, "Ritual", is "an honor."

The JUDAS PRIEST frontman duets with Brink on the song "Black Wedding" — and Maria says that Halford added his vocals after all the other parts were already laid down.

"We actually recorded the song first, we had all of our stuff on it, and then he came in afterward and put his parts into it," she told the "DOMKcast" (hear audio below). "But we had already kind of shown him [how we wanted it to sound]."

According to Brink, "it's pretty common nowadays" for musicians to collaborate on records without actually being in the studio together, "because artists are always doing something — some of them are on tour" or in different parts of the world. "When I did our song on our last album with Brent [Smith] from SHINEDOWN, it was the same thing — we weren't in the studio at the same time," she said. "I wish we could be in the studio at the same time — it feels like it could be more connecting or something like that — but it went down this way. But it doesn't matter."

Maria added that she is "really excited" for people to hear "Black Wedding". "I think that's definitely gonna be a single," she said. "And I think that's gonna be a favorite, for sure, on this album. And we're honored to have [Rob] be a part of it. He's a legend. So we're so excited. We became friends with him, and what an honor to have him be a part of it."

IN THIS MOMENT guitarist Chris Howorth told Metal Wani in a recent interview that Halford was a natural choice for the "Black Wedding" track.

"Maria was doing the lyrics — and it's almost like a duet, but she's singing to herself with the mother and the priest and we're, like, 'Rob Halfordis the priest! He would be the coolest dude ever to have on this song.'

"A couple of years ago, he actually expressed interest in our band and came to see us. It blew our minds completely. We became friends with him from that point.

"He's been super influential to us and when we were doing the song, Maria was, like, 'I'm going to see if Rob's interested,' and he jumped right on it. It's so cool to have him on this song with us."

"Ritual" was released on July 21 via Atlantic Records in partnership with Roadrunner Records.