The group started in 1989, when Adam Tanner and John Carson, burned out from failed rock bands, decided to make music for films, and bought 2 Akai S-950 samplers.

Their first songs came quickly, and the trio headed to Dancing Dog Studio in Emeryville, to record with David Bryson (soon to be a member of Counting Crows).

They developed a large dedicated following in San Francisco over the next two years, playing with their friends in Consolidated often, and opening for touring industrial bands, including Nine Inch Nails.

This led to Alternative Tentacles' Jello Biafra asking the band to join their roster, which they did, releasing what many fans feel to be their best work, Slow Motion Apocalypse, in 1993.

London was primarily interested in the atypical (for G̈r̈oẗus̈) song "Hand to Mouth", but when it failed to catch on as a single, the label dropped the band two months later after Mass' release.

The group's sound can be summarized as industrial, experimental and alternative rock (later) with elements of ethnic music via sampling and to a lesser extent, metal.