In This Moment guitarist Chris Howorth says that having Judas Priest frontman Rob Halford guest on their upcoming album Ritual is “so cool.”
Halford duets with the band’s vocalist Maria Brink on the track Black Wedding – and Howorth reports the Metal God was a natural choice for the track.
Howorth tells Metal Wani: “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 Halford IS 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.”
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Ritual will be released on July 21 via Atlantic Records, with the band unveiling the singles Oh Lord and Roots over recent months.
And as for how the follow-up to 2014’s Black Widow turned out, Howorth says he’s happy with the results and adds: “It’s such a mindblowing thing when you’re trying to write an album. You’re so self-critical of everything and you listen to everything so many times, you almost lose sight of anything.
“But after having sat with it, I really, really like it. I feel like our fans are really gonna like it. We’ve delivered a little bit more of what our fans want. And some of our favourite tracks are Roots – and I can’t wait for people to hear Black Wedding. And I think there’s a lot of other ones that our fans are really going to dig deep and get into. So I’m stoked on it.”
In This Moment are currently on tour across the US. Find a full list of their tour dates along with the Ritual cover art and tracklist below.
In This Moment feature in the new issue of Metal Hammer magazine which is on sale now.
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In This Moment Ritual tracklist
- Salvation
- Oh Lord
- Black Wedding
- In The Air Tonight
- Joan Of Arc
- River Of Fire
- Witching Hour
- Twin Flames
- Half God Half Devil
- No Me Importa
- Roots
- Lay Your Gun Down
In This Moment 2017 US tour dates
Jul 11: Rockford Coronado Theatre, IL
Jul 12: Cedar Rapids McGrath Amphitheater, IA
Jul 14: Mansfield Ink In The Clink, OH
Jul 15: Inwood Shiley Acres Farm, WV
Jul 19: Little Rock Metroplex, AR
Jul 21: Corpus Christi Concrete Street Amphitheatre, TX
Jul 22: Dallas South Side Ballroom, TX
Jul 23: Midland La Hacienda Center, TX
Jul 25: Wichita The Cotillion, KS
Jul 26: Des Moines 7 Flags Event Center, IA
Jul 28: Madison Orpheum Theater, WI
Jul 29: Rochester Mayo Civic Auditorium, MN
Jul 30: Fargo Fargo Civic Auditorium, ND
Aug 01: Bismarck Event Center, ND
Aug 03: Billings Shrine Auditorium, MT
Aug 04: Sturgis Ironhorse Saloon, SD
Aug 05: Lincoln Centennial Mall & M Street, NE
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