Poppy: Empty Hands (White/Blue Vinyl)

Empty Hands continues Poppy’s evolution into a heavier, more focused metal-infused sound while still weaving in her experimental flair and pop sensibilities. It was produced by Jordan Fish (formerly of Bring Me The Horizon), who also worked on her previous album Negative Spaces. 

The album blends metalcore, alternative metal, industrial metal and nu-metal, with moments that nod to her uncanny, machine-like vocal identity and a willingness to play with texture and intensity. Critics have described it as balancing aggression with hooks and atmospheric depth.

This is Poppy at her most controlled, and that’s what makes Empty Hands quietly brutal.

Where earlier records thrived on shock, sudden pivots, and genre whiplash, this album feels locked in. The chaos is still there, but it’s been disciplined. Every riff, every electronic pulse, every melodic hook feels intentional, like she’s stopped proving she can do anything and instead decided exactly what she wants to do.

The production is cold, sharp, and suffocating in the best way. Guitars hit hard without drowning everything else out, industrial textures grind underneath the surface, and the space between sounds matters just as much as the sounds themselves. There’s a sense of emotional vacuum running through the record. Not sadness in a dramatic sense, but depletion. Fatigue. The feeling of being wrung dry.

Vocally, Poppy plays with contrast more than extremes. She doesn’t scream constantly, and when she does, it lands harder because it’s earned. Her clean vocals are icy and distant, almost weaponised. At times she sounds detached, at others quietly furious, and that tension carries the album forward.

Lyrically, Empty Hands circles power, erosion, and emotional imbalance. There’s a recurring theme of giving until there’s nothing left, of being present but unseen, of standing in the aftermath rather than the explosion. It’s less confrontational than I Disagree and less playful than her pop work, but it’s heavier in a psychological sense.

What really works is the restraint. The album doesn’t chase constant peaks. It simmers, tightens, and lets discomfort linger. That makes it feel more mature than reactionary. Less “watch this” and more “this is where I am.”