B-Side Guys

The central image of ‘Wither’ is a person drowning in their own security. Bayline, the Dutch post-hardcore band who formed in 2022 and built early momentum through shows across the BeNeLux scene and a debut album on Suburban Records, return with a revamped lineup and a song that sits squarely inside that contradiction, the comfort you’ve built becoming the thing that’s quietly killing you.

The lyrics hold the contradiction without collapsing it. “My heart says go but reason says stay” sets up the impasse, and the chorus reframes it: “so I wither just wasting away.” The title isn’t a dramatic metaphor. It’s the accurate word for what happens when fear of losing comfort becomes its own kind of slow erosion. The bridge sharpens it further: “these chains though so heavy, these chains are paper thin.” Knowing the chains are self-imposed doesn’t make them easier to break, which is the actual insight the song is circling.

The screamo and alternative metal elements give the track the urgency the subject demands. Sitting with indecision doesn’t sound passive here because the production refuses to let it. The revamped lineup brings a rawness that matches the lyrical frustration, the sound of someone who is furious at themselves for staying put.

“What if the fall leads to flight / what if the dark gives birth to light” asks the question the whole song has been building toward. Bayline don’t answer it, which is the right call. Anybody who could answer that question wouldn’t need the song.