Holland’s contribution to the fledgling goth scene of the early 1980s were formed in Amsterdam in 1984 by Ronny Moorings, his then girlfriend Anke Wolbert, and a former roommate. Pieter Nooten. Within the year, Clan of Xymox self-released their debut mini-album Subsequent Pleasures and were looking to tour. A chance meeting in a restaurant with Lisa Gerrard and Brendan Perry of Dead Can Dance saw Ronny invited backstage at a Cocteau Twins concert in Nijmegen, where Dead Can Dance were playing support. A further invitation came when Clan of Xymox were invited to tour the UK with Dead Can Dance. Moorings accepted, and soon still another offer was forthcoming in the form of a recording contract from Ivo Watts of the 4-AD label. The Clan were the first new signing that 4-AD had inked in two years, and the cult status of the label provided the newcomers with an immediate audience.

The bands self-titled debut for 4-AD was released in 1985, recorded at Edinburgh's Palladium Studios and co-produced by Ivo Watts. Enthusiastically received by the music press of the day, the album showed that even in their infancy, Clan of Xymox were able to combine beautifully textured sounds with a keen sense of melody, and walk a line between electronic and conventional music, dipping effortlessly into both forms. “The Day”, for example, featured an impressively painted electronic swirl, underscored with a propulsive kick drum, and Mooring’s vocals, all creating a song that still sounds vital today and hasn’t dated like the songs of the Clan’s contemporaries. The follow-up album, Medusa, continued the distillation of the Clan of Xymox sound, simultaneously creating the blueprint for so much of the darkwave style that would follow in its wake.

October 1988 marked a major transition for Clan of Xymox as they signed to the Polygram subsidiary Wing, in the process dropping the Clan to simply become Xymox. The fruits of this change was 1989's Twist of Shadows album, which, while continuing their earlier spirit of musical exploration, did point the way to what would become a more pop-orientated sound. This continued on 1991’s Phoenix, which caught onto the explosion of dance music that was beginning in the UK in particular. Phoenix was the band’s last album for Wing, and in 1992 they signed with Zok Records, releasing the albums Metamorphosis and, in 1993, Headclouds. 1992 also saw the addition of Mojca Zugna to the lineup on bass, with her and Moorings becoming the core around which Xymox has since been based. Zugna also took over the role of creating the band’s album covers, and her artwork has provided a consistent link between music and images ever since.

In 1997, just short of a decade without it, Moorings welcomed the Clan back into the band’s name, and marked the return by signing to yet another label, the then new USA and German based Tess Records. The album Hidden Faces celebrated the reinvigoration provided by the name-change with a sound that harked back to the band’s time with 4-AD. Produced by Dave M. Allen (Sisters of Mercy, The Cure) and John A. Rivers (Dead Can Dance), the album once more showed the band’s ability to combine current and classic styles to create something that was entirely their own and completely relevant.

The growth of the goth and industrial genres on a global scale at the end of the millennium made Clan of Xymox the perfect band to capitalise on the cross-fertilisation between the two scenes and the increasing importance of the dancefloor. They toured extensively, playing at Wave Gothic Treffen in Leipzig and the Zillo Festival, and performing in front of 25,000 people in Mexico. 1999’s Creatures album, released on Metropolis in North America and Pandaimonium Records in Europe, produced the club hit "Jasmine & Rose", and reached the number four slot on the Deutsche Alternative Chart. 2001’s follow-up Notes From The Underground did even better, reaching number two in the DAC, and was annotated by the release of a remix version of the album featuring Front 242, Assemblage 23, In Strict Confidence, and Beborn Beton, amongst others. Building on the success of the previous albums, 2003’s Farewell album topped the DAC and was hailed by fans as the best Clan of Xymox album to date. In September 2004, the Best Of Clan Of Xymox album was released, featuring two fan-chosen tracks from each previous albums, as well as new recordings of older 4-AD material and remixes.

2005 will see a new album from Clan of Xymox and the promise of a DVD, as well as the prestigious role as featured artists at Circadian Rhythms.