Last time Jonathan Young was a musician James Vaughan did a review about and now he presents us with a wonderful and unique musical band named, Voice Play!

A Unique Acapella Group

Seasons Greetings Biters and Happy Holidays.

For this December, I’d share with you an A Capella group called, VoicePlay. I’ve wanted to write about these guys as far back as the Phantom of the Opera month. But I was not all that confident in my writing ability.

Now that I’ve got a few articles under my belt and sharpened my teeth a bit, let me introduce you to VoicePlay.

Who Is VoicePlay?

The group is from Orlando Flordia. The musical band consists of tenor Earl Elkins, tenor Eli Jacobson, former baritone Tony Wakim, current baritone- J.None, bass Geoff Castellucci, and vocal percussionist Lane Stine.

They started as a street corner barbershop quartet and is now an award-winning singing group with quite a fan following. Gothic Bite Magazine is, of course, a gothic webzine, and I can say that they might fall into the “pop goth” category, but at least VoicePlay can surely pull it off.

Some Gothic Hits

Some of their more gothic hits include their Phantom of the Opera cover featuring guest singer Rachel Potter. It is a five-minute Queen medley where four of the five members embody various deities of death. These hits include Grim Grinning Ghost from Walt Disney and a few Nightmare Before Christmas covers.

I don’t have my fill of snake and spider stew from last year’s review of the Oogie Boogie cover. So, I’m going back to look at yet another take on our favorite bag of bugs’ significant villainous musical number.

Sporting an impressive C1-A5 vocal range, Geoff gets to take center stage as Oogie Boogie while the others provide backup as Zero, Lock, Shock, and Barrel. Despite praising the Jonathan Young version for going with a much darker tone, I love that the VoicePlay gang sticks closer to the spirit of the original.

Jonathan Young vs. VoicePlay

While still making it there own, little things like adding in lock, shock, and barrel to help with the torment. It gives them some of the verses a nice touch. As stated, Jonathan’s version was darker. It gives his Oogie Boogie song an angrier psychotic vibe.

At the same time, Geoff’s Oogie Boogie cover is almost an exact match to the stop-motion counterpart.

The only difference between the two versions, in my opinion, is that VoicePlay‘s version of the song seems to be more in control. Tim Burtons’ Oogie Boogie song appears controlled on the surface, but from the outside, his significant music number shows outbursts of anger.

It happens when the character doesn’t get what he wants and panic when his plan falls apart, making his charisma more of a facade.

Happy Holidays Biters!

All in all, Biters, if you’re a Nightmare Before Christmas fan, you won’t be disappointed with this cover.

So if you’re looking to broaden your music library or want some fun with just a pinch of darkness in your festivities, I say give VoicePlay a try. A Capella covers are worth a try.

Happy Holidays! From all of us at Gothic Bite Magazine.

See you, next year Biters,
James Vaughan