“Hysteria” is the first US video off British rock trio Muse’s fourth full-length Absolution, which debuted at #1 in the UK and France album charts.

The anthemic song deals with the mental state of desperate, spiraling longing. In the video, the band is playing inside a metaphorical head, amidst a bombardment of imagery. In the verses, we see fragmented thoughts, memories, dreams and observations, cut almost randomly to suggest an obsessive-compulsive train of thought. In the choruses and the solo, the hymnic release of the music is expressed through vaguely medical macro-images of blood rushing through vessels, or synapses chasing through nerve nets.

The video was shot in Toronto, on an off day during the band’s “Curiosa Festival” tour, headlined by The Cure. The performance was then edited in New York at Lost Planet by Charlie Johnston, who had just finished the White Stripes’ “Hardest Button to Button” music video.

Our New York studio then took three weeks to animate and composite the imagery together with the band footage. The video builds up from flat black-and white graphics projected behind the band, to CG-made shapes floating through the space, before culminating in a red wash draining down.

“Hysteria” is the first US video off British rock trio Muse’s fourth full-length Absolution, which debuted at #1 in the UK and France album charts.

The anthemic song deals with the mental state of desperate, spiraling longing. In the video, the band is playing inside a metaphorical head, amidst a bombardment of imagery. In the verses, we see fragmented thoughts, memories, dreams and observations, cut almost randomly to suggest an obsessive-compulsive train of thought. In the choruses and the solo, the hymnic release of the music is expressed through vaguely medical macro-images of blood rushing through vessels, or synapses chasing through nerve nets.

The video was shot in Toronto, on an off day during the band’s “Curiosa Festival” tour, headlined by The Cure. The performance was then edited in New York at Lost Planet by Charlie Johnston, who had just finished the White Stripes’ “Hardest Button to Button” music video.

Our New York studio then took three weeks to animate and composite the imagery together with the band footage. The video builds up from flat black-and white graphics projected behind the band, to CG-made shapes floating through the space, before culminating in a red wash draining down.