Songfacts®:

• "Black Wedding" is a macabre take on Billy Idol's '80s classic "White Wedding," with In This Moment frontwoman Maria Brink joining guest vocalist Rod Halford of Judas Priest in an unholy union.
  
  Brink explained the meaning to Outburn. "I love 'Black Wedding,'" she said. "It's one of the more fun, lighthearted, crazy songs on the album. The concept was me in a place of confliction, turning to this oracle to guide me, and where do I turn, what do I do from here? And that this higher power is putting me into a ceremony with myself to empower myself. 'Black Wedding' is about taking these dark things I'd experienced and turning that experience into this empowering ceremony where the black wedding is this empowerment of this strong strength in me, this independence in myself. It's this beautiful black wedding. It's that strength in the face of loss or heartbreak, or thinking something isn't going to unfold the way you think. It's not this happy white wedding."
• Group founders Maria Brink and Chris Howorth wrote this song along with their producer Kevin Churko and an outside songwriter named Scott Stevens. Their label pushed Brink and Howorth to write with Stevens, whose credits include "Sick of It" by Skillet and "I Miss The Misery" by Halestorm. Brink resisted.
  
  "When other people are trying to have us work with writers, to me, it's an uncomfortable feeling," she told Songfacts. "I don't like to be told what to do or how to sing something."
  
  "But then one day I thought, You know what? I didn't write 'Hurt' by Trent Reznor," she added. "And if I could meet with Trent Reznor and he could help me write a song like that, dear God, maybe I should be open a little bit to this. So, I am grateful that we did wind up doing that and writing that song because that is one of my favorites."
• Rob Halford connected with In This Moment after coming to one of their shows. When they invited him to be part of this song, he agreed straightaway.
  
  "He's such a great guy," Chris Howorth explained to Songfacts. "He and Maria became friends, and we thought, 'Let's hit him up and see if he's interested,' because she was doing this 'mother priest' thing lyrically.
  
  He instantaneously said yes. He jumped on board completely energized and ready to do whatever we wanted to do. He was down for the video and everything. He's one of the coolest people we ever worked with."
  
  "We love him," Brink added. "It was a huge honor to work with him. He's such an amazing guy."
• The music video, which Brink directed with Robert Kley, is a tribute of sorts to Rob Halford, who often uses religious imagery in his presentation (Judas Priest, you know). In the video, Halford plays the priest presiding over the Black Wedding.
• The song is part of the group's sixth album, Ritual, which includes another '80s throwback: a cover of "In The Air Tonight" by Phil Collins.