Few artists have had a career trajectory as fascinating as Poppy’s. A decade ago, she was making surreal, viral YouTube videos and satirical pop songs under the persona of a sinister android. Today, she is one of the biggest names in modern metal with two Grammy nominations under her belt and a jam-packed schedule touring alongside industry giants like Avenged Sevenfold and Linkin Park. Her meteoric rise can be attributed to albums like “I Disagree” and, more recently, “Negative Spaces,” which released at the end of 2024 and established her as a powerhouse in the alternative music scene.
Typically, Poppy switches up her sound drastically with each new project, but her latest album “Empty Hands” bucks that trend. Instead, it feels like a lopsided combination of all the genres she explored on her last few albums — the grungy attitude of “Flux,” the experimental pop of “Zig” and, most of all, the mainstream metal of “Negative Spaces.” As a result, “Empty Hands” is a serviceable addition to her rapidly growing discography, but it lacks the creative novelty that defines her best works.
The first song, “Public Domain,” begins with an ominous drum beat and quirky, distorted vocals that evoke Poppy’s android persona. This fun, energetic opener harkens back to the cheeky personality that has been absent from her recent work. It also introduces the industrial flavors that are sprinkled throughout the track list, but these elements rarely influence the songwriting in a meaningful way. For example, lead single “Unravel” starts with an electronic breakbeat and piano, but it quickly transitions into a loud, soaring hook and screaming bridge that will sound very familiar to fans.
Poppy has become a star partly because of how she channels bygone eras of rock and metal. That habit surfaces on “Time Will Tell,” a catchy jam reminiscent of mid-2000s bands like Evanescence and Breaking Benjamin. Meanwhile, “Eat The Hate” is a short, provocative punk song with raw vocals and wailing guitars ripped straight out of the late 90s, much like the material on her 2022 EP “Stagger.” These genre shifts are to be expected from Poppy, but the album’s sequencing fails to do them justice — the hectic flow and lack of proper interludes make it feel more like a random collection of songs than a cohesive experience.
Those sonic detours shine brighter on a track list that mostly sticks to predictable, melodic metal arrangements fit for arenas and festivals. That sound comes courtesy of Jordan Fish, known for his long tenure in world-famous metalcore band Bring Me the Horizon, who returns as producer after filling the same role on “Negative Spaces.” His collaboration with Poppy has clearly been successful, but his mass-market approach leads to mixed results. “Bruised Sky” is an early highlight — it sounds like a great unreleased track from “Negative Spaces” with smooth transitions and hellish guitar riffs befitting its name. On the other hand, “Guardian” is forgettable, and its oddly heroic chorus feels out of place with the album’s otherwise angry, isolated lyrics.
Fish knows how to craft an anthemic banger, but his heavy-handed production leaves much to be desired. In particular, Poppy’s clean vocals are so overly processed that they lose nearly all character and emotion. Combined with the largely uninspired contributions from the band — there are few memorable riffs or breakdowns to be found — the album has a mechanical feel that is hard to shake. While there are no especially bad songs, many of the deep cuts like “If We’re Following The Light” and the aforementioned “Guardian” blend together into a bland stew of chugging guitar riffs, pounding drums and generic melodies.
“Empty Hands” excels in its most ferocious moments, partly because they pierce through the sanitized sheen that plagues the rest of the album. “Dying To Forget” is a relentless thrasher that sees Poppy belting out violent threats in her signature spine-tingling screams, and it makes for a much-needed jolt of energy at the halfway point of the track list. She has been open about using music as an outlet for her rage, and this song makes that abundantly clear. The same could be said for the absolutely brutal title track, which arrives at the end of the album to pummel the listener with manic instrumentation and apocalyptic imagery. It is, without a doubt, one of the heaviest songs in her discography, guaranteed to ignite mosh pits all over the world if performed live.
“Empty Hands” sits at an awkward spot in Poppy’s catalog because it struggles to carve out an identity as anything other than a follow-up to her previous album. It has a few replayable hits and some deep cuts that may grow on listeners over time, but none of them eclipse the best songs from “Negative Spaces” or come close to capturing the spark of her earlier works. Preferably there will be some new personnel in the studio to inspire Poppy’s creativity going forward, but regardless, her prolific output makes it easy to overlook her less exciting projects — after all, fans always have something new to look forward to.
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