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Degrees of Separation, the new album from Zero1Zero, starts off well enough, a paranoid techno-tinged guitar line in the intro of the first track grabbing the listener’s attention right away. But then it goes downhill, and fast, as turntable noises compete with the faux techno material, and annoyingly loudly mixed vocals combine to make some sort of post- nu metal/techno hybrid mishmash of the rest of the opening track Leech.

And so it goes on throughout the rest of the album, an industrial metal nightmare, in which a few good ideas are down in an acid bath of overkill and technical disaster. The chief offender is lead vocalist Jimmy King, whose style at times recalls Korn’s Jonathan Davis, as on Outside of the Inside. The problem lies in his habit of adding breathy noises to every other syllable, which just made for an annoying distraction from the industrial sound the band trades on.

The way Zero1Zero does it, the listening experience, especially through headphones, goes beyond the uneasy feeling generated by masters of the genre (Ministry comes to mind), and crosses into outright disorienting, and even painful territories. Guitarist/programmer Zoe and company explore the sonic space, sending aural blasts from all different angles of the headphones, sometimes with interesting results. But mix the fireworks in with King’s vocals, and the end result is too often a mess, one that makes me want to rip off the headphones and go listen to some easy listening stuff to recover.

The best song on the CD is Everything I Never Wanted to Be, which features a balladic first half, and an under control conducing section. It succeeds because the band largely refrains from the sonic trickery, and stays away from messing with the listener’s mind. Unfortunately, Zero1Zero goes right back into overdrive on the next track, Scar.

Sometimes you just wish a band would put the computer away and just play their instruments. Degrees of Separation is one of those albums that has just been tweaked past the point of palatability.