Watch thrash legends Testament perform live with 11-year-old on guitar

Testament onstage in 2024 — (Image credit: Timothy Rusling via Youtube)

Thrash metal icons Testament recently played a show with an 11-year-old on guitar for one song.

On September 14 at a Las Vegas concert, the Bay Area legends welcomed prodigy Maya Neelakantan onstage for their track Curse Of The Legions Of Death (C.O.T.L.O.D.). Watch footage of the performance below.

Neelakantan is a 2024 America’s Got Talent contestant who’s frequently gone viral. Her audition for the talent show, an instrumental take on Papa Roach’s nu metal hit Last Resort, was broadcast in April. She made it all the way to the contest’s quarter-final, where she played Metallica’s Master Of Puppets, but did not advance further.

Neelakantan picked up guitar at the age of six and, according to a recent interview, has listened to thrash metal since she was a toddler. “I have been listening to Slayer, Metallica, Slipknot, Exodus and Lamb Of God ever since I was two years old,” she told Deccan Herald. “I loved thrash metal because of how energetic it sounded. Every time it was playing, I always jumped up and down.”

After playing with Testament, Neelakantan shared a photo of herself with the band backstage on Instagram. “Just played with Testament on stage now!!!” she wrote. “It was incredible playing with all of them, playing to a metalhead crowd for the first time and meeting [band members] Eric Peterson, Alex Skolnick, Chuck Billy, Chris Dovas, Steve DiGiorgio and the amazing Testament crew too.”

Neelakantan continued: “It was all such an incredible experience and I loved hanging with the band as well as jamming with them on stage!!!! So unforgettable! Thank you so much Testament for giving the amazing opportunity and for always being so kind and supportive to me right from the beginning!!!! ❤️❤️❤️ More to come!”

Testament released their latest album, Titans Of Creation, in 2020. The band are currently co-headlining a tour of North America with Kreator. They’ll play in Europe with Kreator and Anthrax in November and December. See dates and get tickets via their website.

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Louder’s resident Gojira obsessive was still at uni when he joined the team in 2017. Since then, Matt’s become a regular in Metal Hammer and Prog, at his happiest when interviewing the most forward-thinking artists heavy music can muster. He’s got bylines in The Guardian, The Telegraph, The Independent, NME and many others, too. When he’s not writing, you’ll probably find him skydiving, scuba diving or coasteering.