While waiting for August 5th and the release of Tarja's new album, The Shadow Self, the queen of heavy rock has released the new album's prequel, entitled The Brightest Void, out today (June 3rd) via earMusic. A track-by-track video for The Brightest Void can be found below.
 
The Brightest Void features not one but three incredible guest artists: fellow Finnish star Michael Monroe, icon of the glam rock scene and former front man of inspiring band Hanoi Rocks; Chad Smith (who doesn't need any further introduction); and a new mix of Within Temptation's collaboration "Paradise (What About Us)" carried out with Tarja and world renowned sound engineer and producer Tim Palmer.

The prequel presents Tarja's new single "No Bitter End" as the album opener and furthermore shakes you with an incredible cover of Sir Paul McCartney's overlooked gem "House of Wax" and adds a new twist to Dame Shirley Bassey's James Bond main theme hit "Goldfinger".

 
The tracklist for The Brightest Void is as follows:

"No Bitter End"
"Your Heaven And Your Hell" (with Michael Monroe)
"Eagle Eye (with Chad Smith)
"An Empty Dream"
"Witch Hunt"
"Shameless"
"House of Wax"
"Goldfinger"
"Paradise (What About Us)" (new mix of the Within Temptation and Tarja collaboration)

The Brightest Void track-by-track:

“No Bitter End” video:

“No Bitter End” behind-the-scenes:

More behind-the-scenes footage from the video shoot, as well as the photo shoot with Tim Tronckoe, can be seen below:

The Shadow Self is due for release on August 5th via earMusic.

"I am very excited to finally be able to share the first details of my new heavy rock album with all of you," Tarja previously stated. "The Shadow Self is full of songs that are very dear to me. I cannot wait for you to hear the record that I believe is one of my heaviest albums to date. Keep your eyes open as there will be many surprises along the way to the album release on August 5th. I really mean it. Surprises will follow very soon."

With the release of her fourth rock album, the versatile singer is following up on the success of the multi-platinum and gold-awarded previous records: My Winter Storm (2007), What Lies Beneath (2010), and her most recent album, Colours In The Dark (2013), which charted all over the globe, including four Top 10 entries.

The Shadow Self is now available for pre-order in various formats, including CD Standard, Special Edition CD+DVD. Head to this location.

Tarja will perform songs from her upcoming album for the first time on festival dates this summer. All dates can be found on Tarja's official website.