Shadow of the Lowlands

Shadow of the Lowlands is Disc 4, Track 10 in the Xenoblade2 Original Soundtrack, Track 11 on the Xenoblade Chronicles 2 Sound Selection, and Disc 9, Track 10 on the Xenoblade Chronicles Original Soundtrack Trinity Box. It plays in Theosoir and Theoscaldia Palace during the night.

The lyrics were written by Tetsuya Takahashi, and translated to English by LYSSA & Castro Satoshi. The piece was sung by the Irish choir ANÚNA, with the solo sung by Dónal Kearney. The lyrics are as follows:

Shadows of the lowland leading to the cold and darkened days Without any hope, without a light for long Will this suffering ever come to an end? Will this suffering ever come to an end one day…?

Pride keeps us strong today, glory will be with us Now the time has come to fight and seize the day Pride keeps us strong today, glory will be with us

Suddenly, a gleam of dawn Can you feel the power of faith? Our native land, here we stand as one

According to the Xenoblade Chronicles Original Soundtrack Trinity Box, the lyrics of Shadow of the Lowlands have a Japanese version that is shared with the lyrics of Ever Come to an End (for details, see the page on Ever Come to an End).

Music video
An official music video, filmed and directed by their founder and composer, was released for this track on the Nintendo YouTube channel. It shows the group in a foggy landscape sing the song. No scenes from the game are shown. The video description explains why Mitsuda and Anúna collaborated:
 * The first time that I came across the Irish chorus group ANÚNA was from one of their albums released in 1996, called "Deep Dead Blue". Back then I was totally into the music of Northern Europe, including Finland, Ireland, Scotland and the Mediterranean region. Usually world music consists of a land's distinctive instruments, whereas ANÚNA found their way of expression through the human voice, which can be considered the original musical instrument. The album "Deep Dead Blue" really gave me a huge impression, as the chorus wasn’t like a classical one, nor Gregorian, or Bulgarian… I felt that ANÚNA was a new type of chorus that I’d never heard before. My attention was drawn to the lead singer, Michael McGlynn, and I dreamt about making music with ANÚNA one day. After 20 years, my dream came true through the making of the game Xenoblade Chronicles 2. - Yasunori Mitsuda

Shadow of the Lowlands (karaoke)
Shadow of the Lowlands is a playable track in Karaoke JOYSOUND for Nintendo Switch. It is a MIDI version of Shadow of the Lowlands with the main vocal line removed. In-game, there is the option to include a voice pitch guide that plays the melody on top of the piece.

Credits
Composition: Yasunori Mitsuda Arrangement: Mariam Abounnasr Lyrics: Tetsuya Takahashi English Lyrics: LYSSA & Castro Satoshi Vocal: ANÚNA