Killswitch Engage Style

Welcome to the Killswitch Engage style lesson !

KSE is probably one of most iconic bands representing the Metalcore genre. In my opinion metalcore has been a step in heavy guitar playing evolution. What we can find there is a good, old powerful riffs playing, and reacher melodic content, comparing to metal from the 90's. Some metalcore bands, like KSE can be a great introduction to the world of rock and metal essentialls.

Notice for 7-string guitar owners:
For this lesson I use regular 6-string guitar, detuned to drop B. If you own a 7-string guitar you can play this lesson as well, but you need to consider one string tuning difference - F# instead of G.

Gear used (in order of connection chain placement):

1. Hufschmid 18th Ann electric guitar
2. Presonus Inspire 1394 firewire audio interface (input gain 40%)
3. TSE 808 - Tube screamer simulation (drive 0%, tone 75%, level 70%)
4. Poulin LeXtac vst plug-in:
- Channel - blue
- Input 50%
- Gain 70%
- Pre EQ - brighter
- Bass 50%
- Middle 40%
- Treble 50%
- Contour 100%
5. Kefir impulse loader (mix 100%)
6. Impulse - Catharsis s-preshigh


Tuning - Dropped B(B6 E5 A4 D3 F#2 B1)


Backing track progression:

4/4 Bm | Bm | Bm | Bm D |
||: Bm | Bm | Bm | Bm | G | G | G | G A :||
||: Bm | Bm | Bm | Bm :||
G | G | Bm | Bm | D | D | G | D/F# |
Bm | Bm | Bm | Bm ||

Tempo: Main song tempo is 120 bpm. There are backing tracks available at 60, 75, 90, 105 and 125 bpm.

Time signature: 4/4

Scales used in this lesson:

E-minor (refering to fretboard layout - audiable scale is B-minor)