Poppy may well be the most unpredictable creative the alternative scene has ever produced. A veritable walking/dancing/singing/screeching magpie of music, over the course of five studio albums she's flirted with (deep breath...) hyper pop, EDM, punk rock, grunge, reggae, nu metal, industrial, indie and metalcore. Did we miss anything? Probably. Anyway, she's also covered everyone from Tatu and Kittie to Mac DeMarco and the Pokémon theme, and collaborated with Bad Omens, Diplo, Health, Knocked Loose, Fever 333 and Grimes. And that's all before you get into her various, weird-as-fuck video projects.
For album number six, Poppy has decided to hone in and focus her energies on creating a full-on modern metal record, bringing in former Bring Me The Horizon man Jordan Fish on production duties. It's proved to be something of a masterstroke. Negative Spaces isn't just an excellently put together album stacked with arena-ready bangers; it sounds absolutely massive, crushing opener have you had enough? immediately bringing to mind the sound and feel that Fish made his bread and butter in his previous job.
Bring Me The Horizon are by no means the only obvious touch points here, though - Negative Spaces is filled with nods to the artists that have heavily influenced Poppy's latest turn. They're all around us merges Slipknot's blastbeat-driven rage with the shimmering, anthemic alt metal of Spiritbox (with a bonus, Sam Carter-esque bleurgh! chucked in for good measure); surviving on defiance paddles in the pop-fused tech-metal waters that have taken Sleep Token into arenas; vital sounds like Avril Lavigne if she was produced by...well...Jordan Fish! Meanwhile, Hole loom large over the title track's 90s grunge fuzz, and there's even space for a couple of full-on David Draiman-style monkey hollers on propulsive, industrial-core cut New Way Out.
If this all sounds like it's painting Negative Spaces as derivative, don't fret: Poppy's own, off-kilter idiosyncrasies are stamped all over the place, and there are some welcome detours that snap the album out of its metal groove. crystallized's cutesy synth-pop sounds closer to The Weeknd than anything that'd get a look in on Warped Tour, while hey there is a floating, woozy, meandering respite from the noise. By the time the emo-powered space rock of halo draws things to a close, you're long done with counting reference points. Poppy might have obvious influences here, but she's channelled those into crafting one of the catchiest, most consistent metal records of 2024.
Negative Spaces is out now. Order the exclusive Metal Hammer x Poppy bundle via the official Metal Hammer store
