KEN SIO walks us through Poppy’s multifarious discography in light of her transformation from pop to metal.
YouTube sensation Poppy, debuting in the bizarre “I’m Poppy.” video, became an artistic multimedia project with rich cultish and demonic lore across satirical visual art and music. As a musical outlet, Poppy has undergone a drastic transformation by shedding the pop veneer and becoming a Grammy-nominated metal performer. But how did this satirical pop artist successfully place themselves at the forefront of the modern rock scene?
Nearing a decade since her debut, Moriah Rose Pereira—known by the mononym Poppy—is something of a cultural chameleon. Her discography challenges typical genres constraints—nu-metal, industrial rock, and J-pop influences can all meld into a single project. Her trajectory from the bubblegum-pop Bubblebath EP to her embrace by leading figures in rock has resulted in a distinctly split career, as she continues to master the aesthetics of metalcore.
The root of Poppy’s heavy turn began to manifest in 2018’s Am I A Girl? on the closing track ‘X’, as the final piece of former creative partner Titanic Sinclair’s vision of a pop star’s Satanic descent, culminating in Poppy’s sinister chant “get me bloody, please get me bloody.” This track teases the musical direction explored in her often-overlooked electro-industrial Choke EP (2019). Tracks like ‘Choke’ and ‘Voicemail’ bring an experimental trap noise, while ‘Meat’ situates futuristic synth-pop choruses against unsettlingly narrated verses, whispering a prophecy of an alien apocalypse. This horror extends to ‘Scary Mask’, featuring punk-rock outfit FEVER 333, which swings the listener into unpredictable directions. In its 3-minute runtime, it switches between saccharine pop and thrash metal, serving as a structural precursor to later tracks like ‘Concrete’ where simple pop song structures are totally abandoned.
Poppy’s breakout moment in rock came with 2020’s I Disagree. It’s a well-produced display of metal’s theatrical and dark qualities, cementing her departure from typical alt-pop sounds. The album uses metamorphic shifts between 60s pop, glam-rock, electronica, and pummelling metal with jarring and incongruent song structures. It’s innovative and divisive; some hail it as her magnum opus, whereas for others it’s an absurdist perversion of the metal genre. Nevertheless, I Disagree distinguishes its own identity, particularly on the critically acclaimed ‘BLOODMONEY’ where metal rap refrains, distorted synths and a guitar solo coalesce in a pounding critique of religious hypocrisy. Although the album at times feels clumsy and dependent on gimmicks, it remains a uniquely eclectic experience as her debut into genre-bending heavier sounds.
In the backdrop to her sonic evolution comes Poppy’s public split from Sinclair, accusing him of emotional manipulation and abuse. In her public statement, she declared, “I am not a weak victim, but this is me setting the record straight.” As Sinclair acted as co-writer on I Disagree and lead collaborator for the entire Poppy project, this departure sparked curiosity in her musical direction going forward. Yet, this split offered the autonomy to self-produce the EAT EP (2021) for the WWE NXT soundtrack, honing Poppy’s metalcore craft. Brutal yet technically masterful, the EP showcases her artistic maturity, with screaming vocals and creative compositions, particularly in the unexpected jazz breakdown of ‘Say Cheese’.
That being said, not all her experiments land. 2021’s later full-length LP, Flux, sees Poppy lean towards conventional alt-rock motifs while lacking the originality of its predecessors. It’s not devoid of quality; tracks like ‘Her’ deliver tasteful screaming flourishes and introspective lyrics that narrate Poppy’s self-discovery after her split with Sinclair. Flux feels restrained and lacks the boundary-pushing transgressions of projects past with a more tight focus on dreamy and grunge alt-rock. 2023’s Zig is a frustrating regression which sees a return to electropop and industrial sounds akin to the Choke EP sans the same bizarre originality. The album is aggravatingly hollow, riddled with underdeveloped lyrics and uninspired production, evident across the title track ‘Zig’ and single ‘Motorbike’. Yet, tracks like ‘Flicker’ were reason enough to fortify my complete faith in Poppy’s musical projects to readjust.
Her critically recognised resurgence in 2024 felt like a triumphant return to form. First came the industrial ‘V.A.N.’ (violence against nature) with Bad Omens, a track following an artificial intelligence gone rogue concept. This effort was followed by the Grammy-nominated metalcore ‘Suffocate’ with Knocked Loose, reaffirming her vocal talent and career development in this blistering track with a Reggaeton-inspired breakdown that does not obscure her distinct creative identity.
This momentum culminated in her late 2024 album titled Negative Spaces, refining her heavier sound and streamlining her eclectic genre inspirations. Tracks like ‘crystallized’ are purely electropop, while the nu-metal foundations of I Disagree and pop-punk seen in Flux are sharpened with cleaner production in ‘new way out’ and ‘negative spaces’. It’s more straightforward and less kitschy, but Poppy has never sounded more vocally confident. Poppy’s most recent undertaking is a collaboration with Japanese group BABYMETAL, a source of frequent comparison due to their similar fusions of metal and pop sounds. Poppy’s metal vocals are on full display on the track ‘from me to u’ as she joins the group for their European arena tour in 2025.
Poppy’s career exists between the space of an experimental pop icon and a fully-fledged metal artist. She may never fully abandon her pop instincts, but she has solidified her place in metal music. Despite her admittance into the alternative metal and rock scene by critics and peers alike, the internet has become fervent ground for critics of her vocal ability and live performances. This is unsurprising as women in rock have long faced harsher scrutiny than their contemporaries and gatekeeping around their authenticity in the male-dominated landscape. Linkin Park’s Emily Armstrong and Spiritbox vocalist Courtney LaPlante have been similarly praised by critics but encounter neglect and dismissal by metal fanbases. For some, Poppy’s genre subversions diminish her legitimacy in the metal scene. For others, calling her a metal performer whatsoever is highly controversial.
Nevertheless, her prominence is not incidental as she makes her rounds performing on Late Night shows and begins her ‘They’re All Around Us Tour’ this year. Her journey to success mirrors broader trends where challenging genre boundaries in albums becomes instrumental to the reinvention of an artist’s direction. It’s clear that five years after her first foray, her career is not merely participating in metalcore—she is at the forefront, actively dismantling and reconstructing expectations for it. With new perspectives on metalcore, artists like Poppy continue to challenge what we understand by metal’s standards in an era where artists are born from the internet.
Featured image: Poppy’s Choke EP (2019) cover