PreEmptive Strike 0.1

With having their most recent metal inspired release Pierce Their Husk reviewed, I sort of had burning desire to know which route PreEmptive Strike 0.1 would be taking next. Already a fan of the well received T.A.L.O.S., I wanted to know more about which direction this Greek act would be trailing next. And, I did just that in the interview below. Read on to find out more about Preemptive's future plans:

Alright, so, let's talk a bit about your evolution since the beginning of Preemptive. Your demo CDr, The 0.1 Demo was pretty well taken, considering you got signed to Infacted Recordings on your next release. Did they discover you? Or did you send material in for them to listen to?

Jim - "Well actually it was not our first demo, but it was the first professionally done one! Until then we had produced at least 3 demos. We had spent thousands of Euros recording demos in rock/metal studios with only analog equipment. At those times back at 2003/2004 there was initial interest by the Polish label Black Flames and BLC in the US (RIP Brandon) but finally it didn?t work. We had done many mistakes but the most serious problem was the lack of a professional producer and specialist/expert in EBM/Dark Electro productions. When we found Dimitris Ntouvras this all changed. We used our analog equipment again but we wrote better songs and with Dimitris? production we aimed to grab the attention of the labels. Then I remember distinctly that it was Friday 10 June 2005 when I sent the demo to Infacted recordings. At noon of Monday 13 June we got an answer from Torben telling us that he wants to sign us! He was aware of our project since our participation in Endzeit Bunkertracks by Alfa-Matrix with our song Lethal Defense Systems earlier that year. In 2005 Infacted was not the tremendous label that it became very soon but we decided to sign at once."

And, since then, you've been with Infacted Recordings from "Lethal Defence Systems" to "TALOS". I'm guessing the label has treated you well?

Jim - "Torben has definitely treated us very well. We have had artistic freedom, he gave us publicity with interviews in the biggest printed magazines in the scene and he licensed our albums to the USA, firstly with COP International and then with Metropolis Records, so why to move to another label?"

However, just recently, you've sort of made a shift in tone. Your most recent release, "Pierce Their Husk", was released by Odium Records. There was a lot of metal inputting into your mainly electronic album. Why did you choose this route?

Jim - "It was a totally different thing. We have always done collaborations with artists from other scenes, basically with artists from the extreme metal scene. Personally, I have been listening to a lot of metal over the last couple of years ? bands such as Samael, Summoning, Ex Deo,Septic Flesh ,Amon Amarth, Alestorm, Fear Factory, Finntroll and others... basically bands with electronics and synths. So we collected all of our collaborations on one release and gathered some remixes from bands from the extreme metal scene like Niklas Kvarforth of Shining, V28, Lyfthrasyr, NYNE, plus the guitar-driven electro band Vigilante. We made a deal with Odium/Sonic Hell, a serious and elitist Black Metal Label with worldwide distribution to release this stuff and to promote it to the metal audience. Our basic aim was to push our name to a different audience that is at least 100 times bigger in comparison with the Dark Electro/Industrial scene. We thought that there was not another way for our band to ?go up a level?. We think so far that we made it work."

There was also the decision made to not only release a CD version of the album, but also a 7" vinyl. Why release it in both formats?

Jim - "One of our all time dreams was to release our stuff on vinyl. I grew up in the late 80s and I?ll always have nostalgia for vinyl. The smell of vinyl and the feel of its sleeve in our hands. The decision to release it as digipack CD came later after discussion with the label. But in any case there are 2 excusive tracks on the vinyl and 5 exclusive tracks on the digipack CD. So in addition to some slightly different artwork and colors there are in fact 2 different releases!"

And, on that note, are you going to continue to take in the more metal route? Or no?

Jim - "Not at all! But we will have one or two songs with guitars or similar collaborations on our future albums. Maybe, we?ll do another release like ?Pierce Their Husk? again eventually."

As well as with that, you also did a bit of a remix project, collaborating with Ad Hominem on "Slaves Of God To The Gallows". Was this for fun, or to just experiment with more metal roots?

Jim - "Yes, we did it last year and it contains three remixes, an intro made by us and a song in collaboration with Ad Hominem but with my vocals so it can considered a Preemptie Strike 0.1 track too. We did it with the same purpose as the current one (to expand our music to the extreme metal genre) but unfortunately the label (Darker Than Black) was unable to promote it as it should. But we have to admit that they paid all the cost for the production and gave us some copies too."

Now, as far as your next full length goes, will that be more metal? Or pure electronics? And are you releasing it via Infacted or Odium?

Jim - "It will be pure electronic and more epic and melodic than ever. We now have a new third member in the band, Yiannis Dseq, that contributes some synths and riffs to our songs and also has a hand in production aspect. He and I wrote three songs for the new album. Also, Sakis Synthetic from Nano Infect helped me with two songs. There are so many traditional instruments on this album and five of the songs deal with Greek mythology making half the album a ?concept? album of sorts. Then there is a collaboration with the old school polish Black Metal band Black Altar! But the most surprising thing is I suppose the cover of a song by the Power Metal band Sabaton. The cover is close to the original without guitars and is sung in the German language too by Rouven of Endanger in a second version! Our fans will be surprised with this release that has to do with the classic dark electro sound we started with. The CD will definitely be released via Infacted.".


You did an EP for "Pierce Their Husk" already, as mentioned before. Do you have plans to release any more EPs based off of singles previously released? Or are those plans non-existent at this point?

Jim - "No, in any case as we don?t consider that with Pierce Their Husk released a single. I explained above why we released this mCD. In the future if we can collect collaboration with artists from the extreme Metal scene again then we will talk with Odium about releasing it."

Also, one thing that I'd like to ask: Your songs sometimes seem to have a healthy dose of a political agenda attached to them. Am I correct in saying that? If so, what issues do you try and tackle in your release?

Jim - "I am afraid that I have to disagree with you 100%. Preemptive Strike 0.1 has never and will never have anything to do with a political agenda. Our lyrics have to do with sci-fi related themes from the b-movies of the 50s-60s with the exception of some lyrics that have to do with horror themes and, on the last two albums with Greek mythology. There is no chance to write political songs in the future. This is a promise to you, our fans and ourselves too!"

And, you also input a sci-fi theme to a lot of your songs. Why? Is it just an interest you guys have? Or does it just fit the overall theme?

Jim - "Man, the sci-fi movies of the 50s or 60s are something so true, so innocent, so unique. We both love them. And in any case they fit with our music from the beginning of the band."

And, as far as touring goes, do you have anything planned out for that so far?

Jim - "We are disappointed with the touring and gigging aspect of this. Possibly we need a deal with a manager to book us for gigs and festivals. If anyone reading this interview is a promoter please contact with us. I?m not afraid to say it makes me jealous to see that this year at WGT three Greek bands appeared (Cygnosic, Nano Infect, Siva Six) but we haven?t had a gig outside Greece since 2007?.why is this?"

And, do you have any future collaboration projects in store for your fans?

Jim - "Yes, on our next album we have a collaboration with the cult Polish Black Metal band Black Altar, and in the future we are close to finishing a collaboration with a worldwide-known, epic Black Metal band! And this is only the beginning. We will search to collaborate with bands from the extreme metal scene."

Are you still going to be working with Odium records for future releases? And will you be staying with Infacted, if that's the case?

Jim - "We will stay with Infacted for our electronic releases. But in the future if we collect collaborations with known extreme Metal bands again we will contact again Sonic Hell/Odium to ask if they want to release the stuff. But it is too early for this. We will firstly see how the sales of this mCD and 7? go down with the metal audience."

And, that's all the questions that I can muster out right now. I thank you for your time, and you can feel free to leave any messages you have for fans below.
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Jim - "Thanks for the very interesting questions, and also a great thank you to our fans that have followed us from the very beginning."