The first incarnation of The Unseen was formed in
Hingham, Massachusetts in 1993 after drummer Mark Civitarese, bassist Tripp Underwood, and guitarist Paul Morey parted ways with the singer of their previous band, The Extinct. The quintet released a best-of compilation for the European market in June 2000 titled
Totally Unseen: The Best of the Unseen, which contained two previously unreleased tracks. The group's solid early line-up consisted of Tripp on bass guitar and vocals, Scott on lead guitar, Civitarese on drums and vocals and Paul Russo on second guitar and vocals as well as drums and bass guitar during live shows when the band switched instruments for certain songs. Most shows began with Russo and Tripp singing lead, and ended with Russo playing drums and Civitarese singing lead. Russo went on to play in
The Pinkerton Thugs as well as a solo project called The Strings. He is currently playing in a punk band called Broken Stereo. Mark Unseen (real name: Mark Civitarese), who played drums on the band's first few albums, became the lead singer after Russo's departure. He also formed and runs ADD Records. He briefly joined the Boston punk group
A Global Threat as a second singer, and recorded the full-length albums
What The Fuck Will Change? and
Until We Die before deciding to concentrate on his work with The Unseen. However shortly after his departure he and Unseen guitarist Scott with Mike Graves and Peter Curtis (then both members of A Global Threat) formed Self Destruct. They released only one 7-inch EP, entitled
Violent Affair, and played fewer than ten shows but the musical style and lyrical content displayed on their one record had great influence on all Unseen music to follow, helping to shape their future sound with Civitarese as lead singer. In 2010, Civitarese started a punk rock band called Ashers and released a 7" vinyl and full-length album
Kill Your Master. More recently, Civitarese joined with various member of Boston's hardcore scene to form the hardcore/metal band Tenebrae. There has been some controversy concerning the band, including allegations that in recent years they have "
sold out" and that the band should have stopped after losing Russo and therefore their strong political message. (Russo wrote and sang most of
Lower Class Crucifixion,
So This Is Freedom? and
The Anger and The Truth.) Most widely criticised is that The Unseen have produced music videos to show on commercial music video channels such as GMTV2, a practice looked-down upon in the underground street punk scene which also goes against the political message of the first few albums.
Darkbuster, a band from The Unseen's area of origin, even released a joke song called "I Hate The Unseen". Members of Darkbuster and The Unseen are friends. They have toured Europe, North America, Australia, Japan and Mexico with other punk bands such as
The Bouncing Souls and
Rancid and decidedly more hardcore bands like
Hatebreed and
Sick of It All. Since the departure of Russo, the band has used many replacements on tour such as members of
The Virus,
Strike Anywhere and
F-Minus. However, recently, on their
MySpace page, The Unseen have included a fifth band member, Jonny Thayer, formerly a guitarist with A Global Threat, who was in the band at the same time as Civitarese. In 2006, the publication of Underwood's book, ''So This Is Readin'?'', detailed the life and hardships of being in an underground band with dry comedy. It started as a lengthy band history on the band's website, but after a few amusing "chapters" he was contacted by a publishing company to release it in book form. In May 2006, The Unseen announced on their official website that they would begin writing their sixth full-length studio album during summer that year. The album,
Internal Salvation, was released on July 10, 2007. The first song released from that album is titled "Right Before Your Eyes" and was followed up by the "Break Away", for which the band made a music video. In support of the album, the band joined the thirteenth
Warped Tour in 2007 and launched a US–Canada tour in March 2008. The Unseen remained inactive, until May 25, 2013, when they played at Punk Rock Bowling at the Fremont Country Club in Las Vegas. They have continued performing live sporadically since. ==Members==