Hidden Souls, the synthpop/futurepop band from Buenos Aires, Argentina are back with an album called 'All That We Destroy,' that seems appropriate title for this day and age. The last we heard from Hidden Souls was their pre-pandemic debut album, 'The Incorruptible Dream' in 2018. So a lot of what they hinted at then has come to pass, and the new material is both an acknowledgement of humanity's failings, and a plea for sanity. While most synthpop bands use lighter subject material as song inspiration (love relationships, social situations, slice-of-life) etc., Hidden Souls tackles weightier subjects, but aren't immune to the occasional love song.

Individual members Leo Carden (vocals, guitar), Guillermo "William" Pardo Neira (keyboards, songwriting, programming), and Alejandro Visona (keyboards, composer) should be mentioned again now that I know what they do. No matter what though, Leo's voice is going to remind you of Ronan Harris and Tom Shear, although I think he's a better vocalist than either of those guys. Once you get past the VNV Nation and Assemblage 23 comparisons, Hidden Souls really stand on their own merits. With 11 tracks that cut to the core of the human condition, this band has not been idle since their European tour. Opening strong with "I Was There," the song is more of a story about a near death experience, which could be as easily about catching Covid as it could be about being wounded in a field in the Ukraine or getting shot in a gay club in Colorado. "Sinking In Despair" requires no explanation, but there is still a positive message in it. "Loreley" (based on the German myth, "Lorelei") is the album's sole love song, competently done. "Dive Into My Dreams" is like a private conversation with a close friend or lover, encouraging the best while enduring the worst. "Something" has nothing to do with the Beatles or Abbey Road, but a lot to do with liars, deceivers, haters and baiters. "Is there something I should feel?" That's a question I wonder about every day.

The title track, "All That We Destroy" was somewhat inspired by William walking through Berlin and spotting a hole in some remains of the Berlin Wall. Looking inside the hole, he saw another wall on the other side, so he said to his wife, "It doesn't matter how many years we've tried to make the world better. Finally, we always come back to the same sad point. Because something happens and we destroy everything we did...everything we build, everything we wrote." It's metaphoric, but not without a heaping does of truth. There's a gothic bleakness to "Know Your Fears" which opens with the line "Why everything is going down while someone is bleeding out for all the intensive blackness and all the tears we've shared..." may seem a bit nihilistic, but there is a positive message in it. If that wasn't Nietzsche enough for you, try "The Song Of The Unbelievers" as the ultimate avowal of organized religion. "Nobody" is one of the best-done songs on the album (and somewhat atypical of the rest), but lyrically, it's just so personal that it's hard to grok. Guest vocalist Lorena Kassabchi shines on that track. "We Are All Escapists" seemed a bit formulaic but sill suitable within the scheme of the album. It all ends with "The Void," a 7:36 opus that just seems like more of a fitting end to everything that went before, with the appropriate closing line "...We are in this together now..."

I think that it's difficult, but not impossible to cover consequential themes in synthpop, but Hidden Souls have done it admirably on 'All That We Destroy.' Even though the beat is strong, the album is more food for thought than dancefloor nirvana.