Recommended tracks: “Guardian,” “Public Domain,” “Time Will Tell”
Artists you may like: Amy Lee, Bad Omens, BABYMETAL
Since 2014, Poppy has been a character floating around the internet. Her career has been benchmarked by drifting from cutesy, subliminal YouTube videos, to pop music, and now, an icon in the metal scene. On Empty Hands, she leans fully into that evolution, blending crushing guitars with sharp pop instincts and moments of stark vulnerability. The album feels less like another reinvention and more like a confident statement that embraces every era of her past while grounding Poppy in her own voice.
“Public Domain” opens the album with a sound similar to her earlier career’s pop tracks. The song criticizes the rapid consumption of social media content with lyrics “Ooh, don’t need to know you to know you / I’ve seen you twice today / Tell me is no one ever even safe?” The beat leans heavily into an industrial edge, layered with futuristic textures that immediately set the tone for the rest of the album. It’s quirky, exciting and unmistakenly Poppy.
The fourth of the album is a 30 second track titled “Constantly Nowhere” where Poppy contemplates where she’s been and where she is now, feeling a sense of shifting between phases of life: “Every call was close / And now I know I am constantly nowhere / On the roam, I felt a weight over my shoulders / How did I know there’s more to unravel?” Though short, the song manages to stand out as Poppy searches for meaning in the chaos.
Right in the middle is the transcendent, “Time Will Tell.” Poppy centers on inevitable consequences and facing one’s past actions with lyrics, “It’s never gonna leave you now, ’cause time will tell / If violence follows you to Hell” and even more descriptive, “Our bones relate, amalgamate with the sins in our blood / Why are all the ruins in your wake?” The guitar and heavier vocalization truly draw the song together, giving the track a weight that feels both punishing and cathartic.
Poppy has proven once again that she is unafraid of reinvention, continually pushing past genre boundaries while remaining unmistakably herself. Empty Hands is a testament to where she stands within the heavy metal scene as an artist who has earned her place through experimentation, risk, and a clear creative vision. The album cements Poppy as a force capable of reshaping the genre on her own terms, proving that her evolution is far from finished.
Despite her transition from the quirky, offbeat videos she became known for, Empty Hands has proven that Poppy is still embracing her roots as a weird girl.
Empty Hands is out now.
Poppy’s UK and EU leg of her Constantly Nowhere tour is set to start March 4 in Glasgow, UK with support from Ocean Grove, Fox Lake and more for select dates. Tickets are on sale now.
Constantly Nowhere Tour:
March 4 // Glasgow, UK
March 6 // Manchester, UK
March 8 // Birmingham, UK
March 9 // Bristol, UK
March 10 // London, UK
March 13 // Eindhoven, NL
March 15 // Paris, FR
March 17 // Zürich, CH
March 21 // Vienna, AT
March 24 // Praha, CZ
March 27 // Warsaw, PL
April 5 // København, DK
April 7 // Oslo, NO
April 8 // Johanneshov, SE
