Rodney Orpheus formed The Cassandra Complex with Paul Dillion, after he moved from Northern Ireland to Leeds, England, in 1980. They started out by organizing huge multi-media shows, known as "Complex Events" - each show entirely original, featuring a range of musicians, performers, videos, paintings, and more. Several months later, Andrew Booth, a journalist from a local fanzine, came to interview them, and was asked to join the band. Booth quickly became an essential part of The Cassandra Complex sound.
Not fans of the corporate conglomerate record label style, the band signed to a friend's record label, Rouska Records, and self-produced their releases. While with Rouska, they released several 12" singles including March in 1984 and Moscow Idaho in 1985, which became an instant classic to many fans in and out of the gothic-industrial scene. They then embarked on their first European tour, during which time Paul left and was replaced by John Marchini, Jez Willis, and Keith Langley.
Over the course of the next ten years, the line-up of the band changed several times, one of which was the addition of Volker Zacharias from Girls Under Glass in 1990. The Cassandra Complex continued to release such memorable albums as Theomania (1988), Satan, Bugs Bunny and Me (1989), Cyberpunx (1990), The War Against Sleep (1991), and Sex & Death (1994). The band toured incessantly to support their albums and countless singles.
In 1995, Rodney, together with Marcus Giltes, and Patricia Nigiani, formed the side-project Sun God, to wide acclaim. Along with Sun God, The Cassandra Complex played several European festivals, and stole the show at nearly all of them. After a two year hiatus, and a night of listening to bad music in a club, Volker and Rodney decided that it was time for another Cassandra Complex album.
The work on Wetware began in 1998 and was finally wrapped up in early 2000. Wetware re-defined The Cassandra Complex sound by taking advantage of the latest advances in music technology and building them into the classic sound that they are famous for. More electro-goth-industrial, The Cassandra Complex signed to SPV Records in Europe, and Metropolis Records in the United States. Their first release on Metropolis, Wetware, featured a bonus re-mix by Apoptygma Berzerk.