Review: Brooddark - Deliro

Artist: Brooddark

Album: Deliro

Label: Winter-Light

Release date: March 2026

If there's one thing I appreciate in a (relatively) new artist above all else, it's the spirit of iconoclasm. It takes a lot of courage to release one's music out into the already saturated dark ambient world, but a great deal more to do so without simply trying (and often failing) to make music in the same vein as the genre forefathers or one's direct influences. Brooddark, the alias of the talented Belarusian musician Yaroslav Gavrilyuk, is one such example. After a series of EPs and splits, followed by a full-length album on Cryo Chamber last year, he's back with a fresh album on Winter-Light that pushes the envelope of the project's sound even further into unexplored territories.

If Brooddark's previous album Overvoltage delivered on the album title's promise by building a lot of its atmosphere on industrial elements and a highly electronic array of sounds, Deliro descends into deeper, although no less turbulent waters, an environment where I believe the artist's sonic signature gets a lot more space to breathe and develop. Unlike most dark ambient albums out there (and it's questionable if you can even categorise Brooddark as straightforward dark ambient), the album minces no words in getting its point across. No elongated tracks and slowly evolving drones on this one; with most of Deliro's tracks clocking in at under five minutes, it's more like excerpts of scenes that change with every blink than a classic narrative that unfolds from beginning to end. This imbues the album with a dynamism that I haven't heard in a long while, and really brings forth the cinematic qualities of Brooddark's songwriting. No two tracks are alike, but somehow they seamlessly work together in sequence, perhaps due to the artist's command of the vast array of sounds deployed here. Whether it's deep rumbling drones, synth-laden pieces or massive cosmic soundscapes, each track is marvellously efficient at depicting a different time, space, scale and mood, while staying 100% coherent and on point throughout the 45 minutes of the album's duration. Despite the sheer number of aural components, the sound never feels rushed or compressed, merely dynamic, giving a sense of flow and rhythm to the pieces. In many ways, this album reminds me of Shrine's Sentinel, not so much in terms of sound itself, but rather the free-flowing and daring compositional approach that doesn't fret from casting its net well beyond the usual dark ambient waters to get the right ingredient for the track every time.

Even after many listens - and I've been spinning the album extensively over the past week or so - I still find myself discovering new elements and layers to the journey that is Deliro. The replay value is virtually endless here, and it's incredibly refreshing to have an example of modern dark ambient that - somewhat ironically considering the project name - isn't content with simply brooding in the dark, but instead chooses to express itself fully and without tired genre constraints. My sincere congratulations both to Brooddark and to Winter-Light who has plucked yet another gem from relative obscurity.

Rating: 9/10