''The Shadow Self'' is the sixth studio album released by Finnish vocalist

Tarja Turunen Tarja Soile Susanna Turunen-Cabuli (born 17 August 1977), known professionally as Tarja Turunen or simply Tarja, is a Finnish Heavy metal music, heavy metal singer, best known as the former lead vocalist of Nightwish. Turunen studied lyrical ...

. 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'' is a play by James Reaney. It was produced by the Stratford Festival in 1967 and the Vancouver Playhouse in 1969. It was produced by the University of Calgary in 1972. ''Colours in the Dark'' was published by Talonbooks ...

'' 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 Ann Lennox (born 25 December 1954) is a Scottish singer-songwriter, political activist and philanthropist. After achieving moderate success in the late 1970s as part of the new wave band the Tourists, she and fellow musician Dave Stewart w ...

: "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 Tim Palmer may refer to: * Tim Palmer (film historian) (born 1975), English film historian * Tim Palmer (journalist), Australian journalist * Tim Palmer (1943-1997), British technology journalist * Tim Palmer (physicist) (born 1952), English physic ...

''The Shadow Self'' was influenced by the

Yin-Yang Originating in Chinese philosophy, yin and yang (, ), also yinyang or yin-yang, is the concept of opposite cosmic principles or forces that interact, interconnect, and perpetuate each other. Yin and yang can be thought of as complementary an ...

concept. ''The Brightest Void'' represents the light and ''The Shadow Self'' represents the darkness.

Track listing

Personnel

Musicians

– vocals, piano * Christian Kretschmar – keyboard * Kevin Chown – bass *

Max Lilja Max Lilja (born 27 October 1975) is a Finnish cello player. He is best known as a founding member of the Finnish cello metal band Apocalyptica, a band he left in 2001 to join the Finnish thrash metal band Hevein. Beginning in 2007, Lilja has ...

– cello (cut 3) * Alex Scholpp – guitar *

Doug Wimbish Douglas Arthur Wimbish (born September 22, 1956) is an American bassist, primarily known for being a member of rock band Living Colour and funk/dub/hip hop collective Tackhead, and as a session musician with artists such as Sugarhill Gang, G ...

– bass * Julian Barrett * Peter Barrett ;Additional musicians * Luis Conte – percussion * Mike Coolen – drums *

Chad Smith Chad Smith (born October 25, 1961) is an American musician who is the drummer of the rock band the Red Hot Chili Peppers. Smith has played with the Chili Peppers since 1988, appearing on ten of the band's studio albums and becoming the band's lo ...

– drums (cuts 2,3,11) * Guillermo De Medio * Izumi Kawakatsu * Mervi Myllyoja *

Atli Örvarsson Atli Örvarsson (; born 7 July 1970) is an American-Icelandic BAFTA-winning and Emmy-nominated film score composer. Atli's credits include composing and orchestrating music for some of Hollywood's biggest projects, including the ''Pirates of th ...

* Nico Polo * Fernando Scarcella *

Torsten Stenzel Torsten Stenzel is a German music producer, composer and Honorary Consulate of Germany. Classically trained from an early age his roots are within the field of Electronic dance music, Electronic Dance Music. His interest for music first starte ...

Mike Terrana Mike Terrana (born January 21, 1960) is an American hard rock and heavy metal drummer. Career His first professional work was in 1984, with the MCA band Hanover Fist from Toronto, Canada. Between 1987 and 1997, he was based in Los Angeles a ...

* Toni Turunen – vocals on "Eagle Eye" *

Alissa White-Gluz Alissa White-Gluz (; born 31 July 1985) is a Canadian singer, best known as the lead vocalist of the Swedish melodic death metal band Arch Enemy, and former lead vocalist and founding member of the Canadian metalcore band The Agonist. Her vocal ...

– vocals on "Demons in You" *

Anders Wollbeck Anders Wilhelm Axel Wollbeck (born 10 February 1958 in Stockholm) is a Swedish songwriter and producer. He plays the guitar and Keyboard instrument, keyboard. He is part of the songwriting and production duo Vacuum (band), Vacuum together with Ma ...

Production

*James Dooley – orchestral and choir arrangements *Bart Hendrickson – orchestral and choir arrangements *Mel Wesson - sound designer *

– mixing

Charts and sales

Sales Certifications

References

External links

Tarja-theshadowself.com

Tarjaturunen.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Shadow Self, The Tarja Turunen albums 2016 albums