Watch: TESTAMENT Joined By 11-Year-Old Viral Rock Sensation MAYA NEELAKANTAN At Las Vegas Concert

September 14, 2024

11-year-old guitarist Maya Neelakantan from Chennai, India, who has gone viral for her "America's Got Talent" audition, joined TESTAMENT on stage last night (Friday, September 13) at the House Of Blues in Las Vegas, Nevada to perform the TESTAMENT song "Curse Of The Legions Of Death (C.O.T.L.O.D.)" Fan-filmed video of her appearance can be seen below.

After the concert, Maya shared a backstage photo of her with TESTAMENT and she included the following message: "Just played with TESTAMENT on stage now!!! It was incredible playing with all of them, playing to a metalhead crowd for the first time and meeting Eric Peterson, Alex Skolnick, Chuck Billy, Chris Dovas, Steve DiGiorgio and the amazing TESTAMENT crew too. 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!!!!"

Last month, Neelakantan went viral again for her rendition of METALLICA's "Master Of Puppets" at the "America's Got Talent" quarterfinals. The young guitarist had previously covered PAPA ROACH's "Last Resort" in front of a packed live audience at the "America's Got Talent" auditions.

Maya recently hung out with SLAYER and EXODUS guitarist Gary Holt. In addition, TOOL guitarist Adam Jones gifted her one of his own signature Gibson Les Pauls after coming across her rendition of TOOL's 16-minute masterpiece "7empest". In 2023 she went viral after playing a mashup of 22 TOOL songs all in one take.

"I have been listening to SLAYER, METALLICA, SLIPKNOT, EXODUS and LAMB OF GOD ever since I was two years old," she said. "I loved thrash metal because of how energetic it sounded. Every time it was playing, I always jumped up and down."

As for how she envisions her own music, Maya said: "My dream is to create a genre of my own. Something that merges all of my musical interests together. It'll be a combination of extreme thrash metal and intricate Carnatic music in its traditional form. And it will be something as crafted as TOOL music."

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