Matt Portman's video for New York noise-rock band A Place To Bury Strangers takes us into a deep, dark and alluring place - featuring some extraordinary footage of snakes showing their full capacity to do harm.

Beautifully shot by Marek Wesolowski, the Supermaster video features 'snake man' Steve Ludwin, dramatising his self-administering with snake venom, his sexy female alter-ego; and spine-tingling, almost superreal shots of a snake, fangs bared - and also devouring its lunch...  

MATT PORTMAN:

"This music video was inspired by watching VICE’s documentary on snake man, Steve Ludwin using venom as a recreational means to alter his consciousness. My initial idea was to portray this process in a psychedelic and surrealistic manner. The underlying idea behind this video stems from a long and turbulent history of relentless trust issues. Having lived through a series of unfortunate encounters with people, I wanted to use the idea of a serpent devouring a mouse to act as a metaphor for the inevitability of betrayal.

"When Steve injects the venom he experiences a hallucination of being strangled. Whilst the mouse is being swallowed whole, my aim is to show the act of primal and animalistic carnage in relation to humanistic cruelty.
In addition, the idea of using snakes as a metaphor for aggression stems further.

"The reptilian brain, also known as the R-complex refers to our primitive and instinctive brain function that is shared by all reptiles and mammals, including humans. It is the most powerful and oldest of our collective brain functions. The reptilian brain is also responsible for some of the most destructive impulses we as humans possess like violence, dominance and territoriality."