一聽音樂網

The songwriting started just after the release of 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.

In 17 October 2015, Tarja performed two new songs. "No Bitter End" and "Goldfinger", which would be the first glimpses of the new album.

On 14 March 2016, the artwork and album name finally got revealed. On March 22, 2016, Earmusic released a snippet of "No Bitter End" on YouTube.

On 7 April 2016, Earmusic revealed the prequel named The Brighest 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 The Brightest Void was available for streaming on Apple Music.