By: Adam Grant,

Click to listen to The Unseen on the Other Side

"All of these years of hard work are paying off.  These other people that have been doing this for twice as long as us are taking notice and wanting to contribute - obviously we're doing something right, obviously they respect us, and think highly of us," believes Mark Unseen, lead vocalist for The Unseen when asked about receiving recording contributions from some of their punk rock heroes.

After plugging it out independently since 1994, Boston MA's The Unseen soon realized after stepping into the studio to record their fifth LP, 2006's State of Discontent, that things were going to be different this time around - in a good way.  Having recently been signed to Tim Armstrong's (Rancid) Hellcat Records following a mutual-friend
-inspired business deal, the quartet wound up finding not only a label that believed in them, but also musicians that wanted to lend their genius to The Unseen's latest project.

 Stepping into the mix was Armstrong's Rancid band mate Lars Frederiksen, Dicky Barrett of The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Ken Casey from The Dropkick Murphy's (who produced the album), as well as Epitaph Records founder and Bad Religion heavyweight Brett Gurewitz.

 While the name dropping end of this album's story is impressive to say the least, State of Discontent has a lot more to it than that, including more personal experience driven material, than what could be considered political.  Having covered various political topics within past releases, The Unseen - Scott Unseen (guitar), Tripp Unseen (bass), Pat Melzard (drums) and Mark, decided to pull back just a little on this disc as a result of how popular it has become to diss a Presidential administration and its actions.

"With this one, we almost didn't want to put any political songs on it, just because it seemed liked everybody else was trying to do it," says Mark.  "But we've been doing this stuff for 11 or 12 years, and then all of a sudden you start seeing all of these bands that have never spoken about politics and never been involved in politics, speaking out against George W. Bush and the war in Iraq.

"Part of you says, 'alright, that's really great that people are opening their eyes,' but then I just think that there's more of an agenda here - I think that certain bands and artists are doing this to gain publicity, because they know that it's the 'hip' thing to do right now," he continues.  "It's disheartening in a sense.  It would be cool if these people actually meant what they were saying, but it just seems like they're trying to sell records."

 Aside from picking their political spots carefully, The Unseen have loads of plans for the year ahead including more trips overseas for shows, as well as an ongoing pursuit of finding a way to get their loud, abrasive, hardcore punk rock onto more radio stations and into as many ears as are willing to listen.

 At the same time though, The Unseen don't look to have forgotten where they've come from in spite of their growing reputation and fan following.  Because while they may be climbing up the punk rock ranks, they haven't forgotten what brought them to this point.

"We started this (band) for something to do," reflects Mark.  "Me, Tripp and Scott, we all grew up in the same town and we were the only kids listening to punk rock at the time and we just got together after school for something to do - because the sports kids didn't want to hang out with us, nor did we want to hang out with them," he laughs.  So we formed our own little niche."

For more information on The Unseen, please visit: www.unseenpunks.com