Chosen by Monk
The Parisian post-hardcore sludgemongers pick up the pieces of their latest album, with this new visual chapter in its ongoing storyline, which is more than a mere illustration of the song but a film that brings to life the concept that runs throughout the album as a whole: transformation, survival and metamorphosis in the face of the trials that shape a life.
Directed by Ben Berzerker, a longtime collaborator who previously worked with the band on the videos for ‘The Truth’ and ‘Enfants Terribles’, as well as the documentary ‘Dark Was the Night, Cold Was the Ground’, chronicling The Prestige’s 2014 tour of Cuba, the video for ‘Debris’ continues a visual language developed by both the band and the film-maker over many years.
Shot between the desert landscapes of Abanillas, in the Murcia region of Spain, and the forests of Calvados in Normandy, the film follows a solitary figure washed ashore in an unknown world. Like a castaway, they must learn to survive, rebuild, and adapt to a hostile environment. Layer by layer, pieces of clothing accumulate over their body like scars and memories, becoming the protection needed to withstand the violence of the world while still allowing life within it—until they eventually become the very creature depicted on the cover of ‘Isthmos’.
Vocalist/guitarist Alex Diaz explained the band’s thinking behind the video clip:
It was important for me to shoot in places that carry personal significance… Spain, because of my roots, and Normandy, where I live today. There was something obvious about connecting these two places through this journey.
This video visualizes the creation of the creature that lies at the centre of the album’s concept. Ultimately, it’s the story of someone who, through enduring hardship, becomes something else. Not necessarily stronger, but different.
Opening ‘Isthmos’, ‘Debris’ depicts the moment when catastrophe strikes and forces the search for a new way of existing. Tossed around like a ship caught in a storm, the protagonist is cast upon unfamiliar land carrying the weight of their history, wounds, and doubts. Driven by riffs that are at times shifting and chaotic, and at times massive and almost monolithic, the song acts as a sonic representation of that initial impact.
The conclusion of the film marks a crucial moment in the story. Far from representing victory or healing, it illustrates the acceptance of transformation. Just like the character embracing their new condition, ‘Debris’ suggests that we never emerge unscathed from hardship, but that we can learn to live with the changes—and even make those scars a part of ourselves.
For director Ben Berzerker, the challenge was to give visual form to this duality between collapse and reconstruction:
It was important to convey both the violence and the fragility of the concept and the song through the imagery, but also this overwhelming sense of solitude. The character is alone against the world, alone in their transformation.
The landscapes are not merely settings; they become a reflection of the character’s inner state.
With ‘Debris’, The Prestige continue to expand the universe of ‘Isthmos,’ an album conceived as an inner journey where each trial becomes another layer, capable of protecting us just as much as isolating us. A work in which metamorphosis never erases scars, but instead gives them a new meaning.
- ‘Isthmos‘ is out now.