ALBUM REVIEW: Negative Spaces – Poppy
POPPY may have built her foundations in pop, but it is in metal where she builds her empire. For an artist not initially in the metal scene, the singer has steadily climbed the ranks to become highly regarded. If an album that delves into modern metal is what you want, then Negative Spaces is it. With more twists than a winding labyrinth could ever hope to contain, it’s hard to know what awaits on every track. The album, released through Sumerian Records proves that POPPY remains unrestricted by a single genre.
Pulsing with a synth beat and some brutal guitars, opening track have you had enough? flaunts the diversity of a POPPY song. It’s where pop vocals juxtapose vicious screams. Following this, the cost of giving up is similar in energy. It captures the essence of what POPPY is good at, and is successful as a genre-bending tune. However, there is a shift by they’re all around us which opens with thunderous guitars. Gutturals gain in intensity in a song where vocals are half-angelic, half-devilish.
A few tracks in, it’s easy to think you will be prepared for what the rest of Negative Spaces has in store, but you would be wrong. A hint of the old POPPY and what once was lingers four songs in on crystallized: an all clean vocals, upbeat tune. It lends to the vibe of healing after heartache. However, its slow-droning outro suggests all may not be as it seems.
Meanwhile, the center’s falling out is the song to change sceptical minds about POPPY‘s vocal capabilities. A page must have been taken out of KNOCKED LOOSE‘s book upon the song’s conception, which perhaps correlates with her feature on Suffocate. Nevertheless, POPPY makes it uniquely her own. In the song, it is as if she has cracked herself open before us. She plays to her strengths as a vocalist in a song charged with fury. It is an impressive feat, considering the pop-based audience POPPY‘s music used to pander to.
A shoegaze element with low-pitched guitars comprises surviving on defiance. At the start, there is something about it that makes it quite ethereal. By the first chorus it is djent-sounding and heavy, but POPPY continues with the same soft vocals. The song’s nature is akin to that of penultimate track tomorrow: a trippy, dreamy interlude. ‘I like entertaining. Don’t we all like entertaining?’ POPPY says, her voice distorted. By final track halo, POPPY explores a vulnerable pursuit to success without being overshadowed by pain. Here and throughout, there is a message to exist out of spite and watch that pay off in the end.
Love it or hate it, Negative Spaces is truly and authentically POPPY. It is a genre-transcending hit, and a valuable entry for a notable LP as 2024 draws to an end. It is a concept album, cinematic, and brilliant. Indisputably, this is the new face of metal. It is experimental and ultra-modern, which is something some metal fans may fear. This album proves POPPY is more than a metal vocalist, nor is she a mere pop-turned-metal singer; she is gradually evolving into something far greater.
Rating: 9/10
Negative Spaces is out now via Sumerian Records.
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