We will be starting out the song in a 5/8 time signature. In other words, there will be a span of 5 eighth notes in each measure.
The first riff is a bit Meshuggah-esque. Meshuggah often uses heavy palm muting riffs synced with drum patterns. You'll notice that we'll be repeating the first 2 bars a total of 4 times. While you play that section, make sure your picking hand is palm muting all the strings. You'll be using downstrokes as well as upstrokes, so make sure your palm mutes stay tight no matter what pickstroke motion you're using.
In the second part, we'll be branching out a little from the first riff, basically playing the same pattern but with a couple variations. We'll now just be playing notes on the 6th string instead of all 3 bottom strings. Also, for the first note in every other measure you'll be playing a natural harmonic on the 12th fret.
Have it down? On to Exercise 2!