Break out the box of Kleenex. Don the Elvis Costello- style glasses. Prepare to wallow in rueful remembrances as fourteen aspiring bands attempt to capture your heart and the most painful sentiments therein. Deep Elm Records, the New York based indie label which has dedicated itself to documenting the underground sensation nebulously categorized as "emo," has released volume three in its ongoing Emo Diaries series. Containing what may be the most obscure repertoire the series has seen yet, The Moment of Truth triumphs as "an introduction to many of the best young, d.i.y.- minded bands tirelessly playing their hearts out across our fine land."

Sure, emo is steadily succumbing to many of the pitfalls which befall any rapidly- developing genre (e.g. fashion clichés, "scenester" pretensions, musical homogeneity), but as the bands on this collection demonstrate, the music is still capable of delivering its much- hyped goods.

"Last Verse," the disc's opener, is offered by Swedish band Starmarket, and begins by righting an arguable wrong committed by the last Emo Diaries volume. Emo Diaries 2 delved a bit too heavily into the musical form's clean- channel dynamic. Starmarket discharge a more aggressive attack without compromising sensitivity in the process. Planes Mistaken for Stars continue the intensity on "The Past Two" (in a splinter- style increasingly dubbed "screamo" on account of the vocals) with much less success. Fortunately, this disappointment is joined by only one other track, an obtuse selection called "New Buffalo" from Chicago's Sweep the Leg Johnny (strangely, one of the compilation's better- known groups). Another relatively well- known band, Deep Elm's own Cross My Heart, supply us with "Hearing Things," a song that clearly demonstrates why their popularity continues to grow. Other resounding successes include the peppy "One Thousand Directions" by Ultramagg, "Cigar," the Metroschifter- like instrumental offered by Biblical Proof of UFOs, and Last Days of April's closer, "Nothing's Found."

The title of this volume suggests a sense of revelation, a metaphysical awareness fleeting in duration which nevertheless manages to lead the subject to view the world in a different way. It is perhaps this potential within emo which draws so many to its introspective shores, a sense of promise supplied often by the third volume of this excellent series.

-Kevin Ruggeri