Paul first read William Ernest Henley‘s “Invictus” while he was still in grade school. Long before React existed, the poem had already given him an idea he would keep returning to: suffering and uncertainty may be outside your control, but your response to them is not.
Years later, that thought found its way into “Navigator“.
Paul wrote the song around a sailor who knows the sea can turn dangerous and goes anyway. The ocean represents uncertainty and hardship. Storms are the moments that test someone, while steering the ship becomes a way of talking about taking responsibility for your direction even when you cannot know where things are heading.
He did not want to rewrite “Invictus” as a hardcore song. The poem supplied an idea he had carried since childhood, and the nautical imagery gave him another way to make it personal.
“For me, Navigator is ultimately about choosing to face the storm. You can’t always control the waves, the weather, or where the journey takes you, but you can decide how you respond to them. Sometimes, courage isn’t about being fearless. It’s about being afraid, knowing the risks, and still choosing to move forward.”
That way of thinking runs makes the core of “True Grit“, React’s first full-length, released on March 4, 2025. By the time the Batangas, Philippines band made it, they had already been together for nine years.
Those years were spent writing songs, playing shows, growing together and remaining part of their local hardcore scene. Eventually a full-length began to feel necessary. They wanted something that could document what they had built and where they were at in their lives, but they did not want to rush one simply because bands are supposed to reach that point.
“When we finally felt that we had enough experience, songs, and conviction behind us, the full-length felt like the right statement to make.”
React are proud of the record and the work behind it because they see it as an accurate account of who they are: their roots, their music and the ideas they are willing to stand behind.
“True Grit” followed 2019’s “Onwards”. React hear growth between the two records, especially in the songwriting and lyrics, but they do not talk about the newer album as an attempt at reinvention. They had changed as musicians and as people, and became more comfortable putting personal experiences into their songs and expressing ideas with more thought.
The important stuff stayed. Their DIY mentality remained. Their connection to the local scene remained. So did their understanding of hardcore and their insistence on backing up what they believe. They never saw much value in changing simply for the sake of sounding different.
“For us, True Grit isn’t about leaving Onwards behind. It’s about showing how far we’ve come while still carrying the same foundation with us. The sound and writing have matured, but the heart of the band remains the same.”
“The Weapon” shows what that foundation can mean when React look outside themselves.
Paul wrote it about resistance and refusing to tolerate corruption, but he did not want the song to stop at blaming somebody. He was interested in the decision that comes afterwards. Once you know something is wrong, what are you prepared to do about it?
The title came from Have Heart’s “The Machinist”. Have Heart have strongly influenced Paul, including the way he understands hardcore, and the line “Let our voices form the weapons” became the starting point.
The weapon in React’s song is conviction. It might be a voice, personal principles, courage or simply the ability to act on something you believe. Paul wanted listeners to take that idea into their own circumstances instead of being handed one prescribed form of resistance.
“We wanted people to find something personal in that message and recognize that they have the power to make a stand in their own way. We never tolerate. We resist.”
“Ascend” takes that stubbornness somewhere much closer to the band’s own life.
React have no interest in treating the underground as a limitation. It is where they came from, where their identity was built and where they still find purpose. Things will not always go their way, but moving forward does not require compromising that relationship.
The song brings in the image of the Gordian knot. Life can tighten into something that appears impossible to untangle, and sometimes the answer is to stop searching for an easy route, cut through it and find your own way.
Even then, React do not treat endurance as a solitary achievement. The people they meet, friendships they build and community around the band become part of their strength. Those experiences move with them.
“Ascend” becomes a reminder to keep going, remain proud of what has already been survived, stay close to your roots and refuse to let defeat convince you that getting back up is impossible.
Drummer Festin came at a related subject from another direction when he wrote “Inner Strength“.
He wanted the song to speak to people dealing with difficult periods, self-doubt or situations where continuing meant finding something inside themselves they were not sure they possessed.
For Festin, strength has little to do with physical capacity. It is what remains when circumstances begin to fall apart. The lyrics also return to responsibility: face your life, own your choices and do not automatically turn back because things became difficult.
“For us, inner strength is not about being fearless or physically powerful. It is about having the conviction to face your fears, endure hardship, and allow challenges to make you stronger.”
Bassist Rommel brought a much more specific breach of trust into “Liars & Deceivers“.
The song came from a personal experience in which genuine kindness was taken for granted and met with broken promises and selfish intentions. It reaches the point where somebody’s words stop matching their behaviour and the trust between people breaks.
Rommel’s response is to recognise the greed and dishonesty without allowing it to change his own standards. Somebody else’s actions do not have to become permission to compromise your values.
That concern with whether words and actions actually match keeps returning throughout the album.
“Insight” treats growth as something that should become visible through behaviour. Experience might make somebody stronger or wiser, but React put much more weight on living according to your beliefs than announcing them.
It is one of the band’s basic rules. Stand behind what you say, then put it into practice and allow the outcome to speak for itself.
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“Shut Your Mouth” has considerably less patience for people who do the opposite.
It is a direct response to negativity and to people who are always ready to judge or criticise. React do not want to give those opinions more authority than they deserve. Somebody can say whatever they want, but words have little value if there is nothing meaningful behind them.
The song is about holding your ground, refusing the distraction and continuing with what you are doing.
“Sometimes, if you have nothing good to say, the best thing you can do is shut your mouth.”
Then “No Excuses” removes the words altogether.
It is an instrumental and React describe it as heavy, but the meaning they attach to it is unusually specific. No shortcuts. No empty promises. No excuses. No talking behind closed doors.
“React has always been about action, not validation. We show up, we put in the work, and we stand behind what we do. Say what you want. Doubt us. Count us out. In the end, your words mean nothing. We let the results speak for themselves.”
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You can see that DIY thinking outside the album too. The video for “R-E-A-C-T” was filmed entirely on a smartphone, with the band taking care of the filming, mixing, editing and final production themselves. The point was practical: limited resources did not have to stop them from making the video, and expensive equipment or a professional studio were not prerequisites for getting an idea finished.
The song itself gives the band’s name a meaning that complicates any easy reading of React as being concerned only with resistance and confrontation.
“R-E-A-C-T” is about choosing to keep your heart open when circumstances can easily make somebody empty or hardened. Compassion and staying yourself are not weaknesses in their thinking. Both can require courage.
When things become cold or uncertain, the song comes back to standing up, continuing and allowing yourself to begin again.
“For us, it means having a positive reaction to the things we face, choosing to respond with purpose rather than letting negativity define us.”
The personal cost behind some of those ideas becomes clearest on “Eulogy“.
Paul dedicated the song to his mother, who died 27 years ago. It deals with what happens when loss is no longer recent but has never really disappeared either. Memory, sacrifice and love stay with him, while time does little to make the years somebody had with another person seem sufficient.
The lyrics acknowledge that life can be gloriously beautiful and devastatingly cruel within the same lifetime. There is no attempt to solve that contradiction.
Paul writes instead about carrying his mother’s memory and honouring the love and sacrifices she left behind.
“Some losses never truly leave us. They simply become part of who we are.”
Pain also sits behind “Depths of Despair“, although React do not want the title to dictate how the song is understood.
They make a point of carrying some sense of positivity into their songs even when the starting point is pain. Here, the scars remain and the damage has already happened. Becoming stronger does not mean pretending otherwise.
Forgiveness enters without erasing memory.
Forgive, don’t forget. Rise above regret.
That relationship between pain and what somebody does with it ties a surprising amount of “True Grit” together. React write about resistance, self-reliance and standing firm, but their idea of strength leaves room for fear, grief, forgiveness, friendship and compassion.
“Navigator” admits that courage can begin with being afraid. “Ascend” includes the community around the band rather than pretending every struggle is individual. Festin’s “Inner Strength” accepts uncertainty and self-doubt. Rommel’s “Liars & Deceivers” refuses to let betrayal dictate his own behaviour. “Eulogy” accepts that 27 years do not make a loss disappear.
Even the band’s harder language keeps returning to responsibility. “The Weapon” asks what you do when confronted with corruption. “Insight” measures beliefs by action. “Shut Your Mouth” refuses to spend time chasing empty criticism. “No Excuses” leaves the talking out altogether.
That helps explain why nine years mattered.
React had lived with these ideas long enough to write about them from different places. They had “Onwards” behind them, years of shows, their place in the Batangas scene, friendships surrounding the band and personal experiences that could no longer be reduced to generic hardcore slogans.
They wrote and produced “True Grit” themselves. Iñigo Mortel engineered, mixed and mastered the record at Banana Rising Recording Studio, with Ralph Espiritu handling the artwork.
The full-length did not require React to leave their earlier record, DIY habits or underground roots behind. They used the extra years to take those same foundations further and get more personal about what they actually mean.
Nine years in, their own rule remained the easiest part to understand: show up, put in the work, and stand behind what you do. Sounds ‘hardcore’, right?
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