On Saturday, July 25, Poppy returned to the St. Louis Pageant, the premier venue for left-of-center metal acts. The genre hasn’t exactly blown up the charts lately—when was the last time you heard ANY top 40 music with guitar?—but as Poppy and her tourmates proved, metal’s dark, subversive spirit is alive and well. In the crowd, college students with Marilyn Manson mascara and thigh-high boots mixed it up with middle-aged metalheads in Iron Maiden tees. Clearly, Poppy has found her audience.
Poppy’s road to metal stardom has been long and strange. She debuted in the mid-2010s with a manufactured persona—a prefabricated pop star for the Instagram age, straight outta the Uncanny Valley. The project resulted in some cute bops and eye-catching videos, but one sensed that, underneath it all, the “true” Poppy was a subversive auteur dying to let her freak flag fly. Change was coming, as foreshadowed by “Play Destroy,” a 2018 dance-metal duet with Grimes.
The death’s-head moth finally emerged from her cocoon on 2019’s I Disagree, a trap-metal extravaganza influenced by her work with then-partner Ghostemane. The tracks were a direct commentary on her battles with mental health and the music industry writ large, a passionate “screw you” to her previous manager. That concept alone made for a fascinating listen, but Poppy also had the vocal skills to back it up and the help of talented producers who brought her vision to life. The results were an irresistible mix of Slipknot, Rammstein, 2010s indie electronica, and hip-hop style production.
Over the last seven years, Poppy has fully come into her own as a metal artist in her own right. She’s earned respect touring with legends like Deftones, hit a second career high with 2024’s Negative Spaces, and is now out on the road touring her brand-new album, Empty Hands. The fact that she kept the moniker “Poppy” reveals her love for contrast and juxtaposition. She kept the feminine edge and her pop sensibility while significantly expanding her vocal abilities (about half of the tracks use hardcore-style shouted vocals) and adopting a darker, more aggressive vibe. Yet, beneath the metallic fury, her music still has moments of genuine introspection and vulnerability. She’s a post-ironic artist with that most precious cultural currency—authenticity. More importantly, she kicks ass.
San Diego’s Thousand Below set the tone for the evening. Formed in 2016, they were probably the least well-known act on the bill, but they performed their job well. With their brand of emo-inflected metalcore, Thousand Below established a dark, heavy mood—which is really the best thing an opening act for a metal band can do. They played a solid set and did absolutely no harm to Poppy. As a former metalhead in his thirties, I felt right at home during their performance, and I would favorably compare them to bigger-name acts in the scene like August Burns Red.
Next up was LANDMVRKS, a French metalcore outfit formed in 2014. The band’s obvious ’00s nu-metal influence made them a logical choice for this tour. Frontman Florent Salfati is clearly an experienced performer who knows how to work a room. He displayed real range as a vocalist, effortlessly switching between hardcore-style shouting and nu-metal rap vocals on a few tracks. He brought an immense amount of energy, passion, and enthusiasm to the stage, using his crowd work between songs to elevate the room’s energy level. Everyone was standing and headbanging, and a few were inspired to mosh.
St. Louis holds a special significance for the band—a past performance in the city was their first-ever show in the US—so the evening carried a triumphant, homecoming vibe. Their 2025 album, The Darkest Place I’ve Ever Been, made up the bulk of their set and also happens to be their most popular and best-reviewed release yet. This tour is a great opportunity for Americans to check out these rising international metal stars.
The main attraction, though, was Poppy herself. She played in front of a cleverly designed stage featuring two large columns, each with screens playing the kind of dark, psychedelic light and magic you expect to see at a modern metal show. Her backing band—decked out in a look best described as Norwegian black metal corpse paint meets Insane Clown Posse—energetically supported the onstage stage chaos, which included an impressive drum solo. Poppy, meanwhile, climbed up and down from the column on stage right through the night, occasionally twirling or brandishing her mic stand while doing cowgirl kicks or running in place. Her mood switched from disaffected and cool to terrifying in seconds. In fact, this happened multiple times during a single song: “Scary Mask,” a fan-favorite track from her Choke EP. It starts with a whimsical pop melody that brings to mind early stuff like Poppy-Computer. The brief calm is shattered by an assault of rap-metal and hardcore that feels like a guest feature on a Slipknot record. It’s no mere novelty song; it’s an anthem of sorts for Poppy, who adopted a fearsome persona to reclaim her life and her music.
Most of Poppy’s setlist was made up of tracks from her latest albums, Empty Hands and Negative Spaces (hands-down her second-best album after I Disagree). She didn’t play any songs from that breakout record, but that’s to be expected. Poppy now has a decade’s worth of material to use, and this setlist served as a synopsis of her current era. She’s finally found a way to merge all her different ideas, influences, and aesthetics into one highly entertaining package. Make no mistake: Poppy has become an institution in the metal community. If she’s good enough to tour with Deftones, she’s good enough for you.
The sound design for the night was outstanding. The venue was so close to full that I had to stay near the bar for most of the show, but I could see and hear everything perfectly. (I definitely recommend bringing earplugs to this tour, though, because it is LOUD.) People of all persuasions—from elaborately dressed neo-goth Gen Z college students to middle-aged couples on dates—really got into it. They danced, they headbanged… some even moshed if the mood struck them. The performers and the audience all seemed to have a great time. Online, metal fans can be notoriously snobbish, but at live shows, you see incredible energy and community spirit.
The tour is now in Texas before a swing through the southeast before heading overseas. There are still many dates left on this national run, so if you missed them in St. Louis, you’ve still got time to break out last Halloween’s killer clown makeup kit and book a flight. | Rob Von Nordheim
