The darkwave unit
the Cassandra Complex formed in 1980 with Paul Dillion and
Rodney Orpheus, a musically inspired duo in search of playing to big music events, specifically tagged "complex events." Andrew Booth, who was formerly a journalist who interviewed
the Cassandra Complex, was asked to join the group and
the Cassandra Complex was officially a trio rearing the industrial-dance sounds laid underground during the early '80s.
Throughout the '80s, the band was signed to the independent label, Rouska Records. Releasing a set of 12" singles,
the Cassandra Complex became a familiar favorite among the goth rock crowd, but changes were quickly occurring within the makeup of the band. Dillion left the group toward the end of the decade, being replaced by
Jez Willis, Keith Langley, and
John Marchini.
Volker Zacharias of
Girls Under Glass also joined in 1990.
As the mid-'90s approached,
the Cassandra Complex already had a slew of releases to their name:
Theomania (1988), Satan, Bugs Bunny and Me (1989),
Cyberpunx (1990), The War Against Sleep (1991), and Sex & Death (1994). In 1995, Orpheus hooked up with Patricia Nigiani and Marcus Giltes for a side project called
Sun God while balancing
the Cassandra Complex. Still undeterred by his various projects, Orpheus pushed the newly directed goth-industrial sounds of
the Cassandra Complex in the direction of playing festivals across Europe. Two years later, the band began working on Wetware, their first for Metropolis Records, which was released in fall 2000. ~ MacKenzie Wilson