The Shadow Self


The Shadow Self is the sixth studio album released by the Finnish singer Tarja Turunen. The record was released on 5 August 2016. The record produced three singles.

Background

The songwriting started just after the release of Colours [in the Dark |Colours in the Dark] in 2013, and Tarja gave hints through her Facebook and Twitter accounts along the way. In the start of 2016, Tarja started to reveal more bits about the album and put up bits of lyrics on Facebook. Tarja also stated on her Twitter account that there would be two collaborations with two woman singers on the album.
On 17 October 2015, Tarja performed two new songs, "No Bitter End" and "Goldfinger", a James Bond theme cover, which would be the first glimpses of the new album.
On 14 March 2016, the artwork and album name finally got revealed, Turunen said that the title of The Shadow Self was inspired by Scottish singer Annie Lennox: "I came across an Annie Lennox interview some time ago on the internet, and I was reading about her speaking about 'the shadow self,' about a darker side of us all. Everybody has a darker side, and we should probably just appreciate that it exists, but especially we artists. We get a lot of inspiration from our darker side". On March 22, 2016, Earmusic released a snippet of "No Bitter End" on YouTube.
On 7 April 2016, Earmusic revealed the prequel named The Brightest Void, released on 3 June with nine tracks. It is an album by itself but also ties together with The Shadow Self. On 14 April 2016, Earmusic released a trailer for the coming video "No Bitter End", the whole video will be released on 20 April. On 27 May 2016, Tarja announced that The Brightest Void was available for streaming on Apple Music.
The album was once again mixed in Austin, Texas at '62 Studios by Tim Palmer.
The Shadow Self was influenced by the Yin-Yang concept. The Brightest Void represents the light and The Shadow Self represents the darkness.

Track listing

Personnel

Musicians

;Additional musicians
Chart Peak
position
Czech Albums 3
UK Rock and Metal Albums 8
UK Top Independent Albums13
UK Official Physical Sales70
UK Albums 149
US Top Heatseeker 23

Sales Certifications
RegionList of [music recording certifications|Certification]
Russia Gold