Synopsis

A young gangster pursues wealth and dominance through increasingly violent acts, collecting gold as a symbol of his rising power. His success soon becomes an obsession: after covering himself in gold, he turns from ambitious criminal to grotesque monument of greed. The fantasy collapses when his apparent glory makes him a target, ending in betrayal, destruction, and the violent rejection of everything he has accumulated.

Factoids & Trivia

• The video was released on October 3, 2013, ahead of Gesaffelstein's debut album, "Aleph," which arrived on October 28, 2013.

• Its central idea combines the criminal-world atmosphere of the "Grand Theft Auto" games with the cautionary myth of King Midas.

• The gold imagery functions as a visual shorthand for power, money, status, and the danger of displaying all three. The video's message is deliberately anti-materialist: success becomes self-destructive when it is pursued as an end in itself.

• "Hate or Glory" shares its thematic concerns with Gesaffelstein's earlier video "Pursuit." In both clips, power is represented through striking visual symbols, and the pursuit of dominance ultimately leads to ruin.

• The video was produced through Division Paris and uses stylized violence, controlled compositions, and visual effects to give the song the feel of a compact crime film.

• The clip received multiple nominations at the 2013 UK Music Video Awards.