The band was established as a solo project in 1997 by Andy LaPlegua who was joined by former Sector 9 (now Moonitor and Zombie Girl) bandmate Sebastian Komor to perform live.

Later that year, the band's first full-length album, Serenity is the Devil, was released, which climbed to number one on the Deutsche Alternative Charts.

In 1997, Andy LaPlegua established the project, Icon of Coil, which was primarily a concept built around a logo, graphic design and music.

Around that same time Tatra Records released the compilation Sex, Goth & Electronics, to which IOC contributed an exclusive version of their song "Repeat It".

Soon afterwards, they traveled to Germany, with live member Jon Holm, to support Apoptygma on their Welcome to Earth tour 2000 at their gigs in Frankfurt, Cottbus and Leipzig before going back to Norway to play together at Rockefeller in Oslo.

One Nation Under Beat debuted in the top 20 on the DAC-chart (Deutsch Alternative Chart) for eight weeks and peaked at number three.

In late spring of 2000 at a gig in Uddevalla, Sweden, Christian Lund joined the band as a live-member and went on stage with Andy and Seb for the first time.

During their tours, the band found the time to write material for their second album, The Soul is in the Software, which was released in April 2002 and stayed at number one on the DAC for several weeks.