Poppy got famous before she was a metal artist, through a run of deliberately strange YouTube videos that started around 2014, "Poppy Eats Cotton Candy" among them. They played like performance art, and she has never fully dropped that side; a 2024 video series, Improbably Poppy, went back to it.
The heavy turn is where the awards came from. "BLOODMONEY" made her the first female solo artist nominated for Best Metal Performance, at the 2021 Grammys. Her second nomination in that category came at the 67th Grammys, for "Suffocate," her feature with Knocked Loose, which also produced a much-shared performance on Jimmy Kimmel Live!
Negative Spaces came out in November 2024, and she toured it on They're All Around Us, her first headlining run behind the record, starting in San Francisco in March 2025. She calls what she does "nu metal indietronica," which is about as close as anyone has gotten.
Empty Hands followed fast, on January 23, 2026, through Sumerian, her seventh album. Kerrang! reported the press materials promising industrial elements, pop sensibilities and "her signature uncanny, machine-like voice." The Jordan Fish-produced single "Bruised Sky" had already been played live across North America before the album was even announced.