For a classic example, go to Joy Division's Closer, made utterly terrifying by Martin Hannett's tiny details – the soft whoosh at the start of The Eternal; the harsh knock of metal at the beginning of Decades, each of them emerging perfectly into the blankness.
At the time, no one seemed to know who he was and I was perhaps a little harsh in knocking him down for it.
An unusually harsh winter knocked the recovery off course, but there have since been signs, including strong job growth, that the effects of the bitter cold have dissipated.
Was it a final lack of strength from a woman who has proven herself capable of withstanding the harshest knocks ("this political stuff is nasty, and it's tough", as Trump put it)? Was it a loss of heart?
The fire, which broke out on Monday when harsh Santa Ana winds knocked a power line onto dry brush, has cost more than $12 million to fight.
Improvements in spear size and expansions of seasons have led to some varieties being less hardy, so a harsh frost would knock things on the head (a bit frustrating when you've waited so long for those precious pickings).
The harsh tax treatment knocks 13 basis points off your effective yield, if you are in the top federal bracket.
Faced with this troubling complexity, doctors have fallen back on treating cancer like a game of Whac-A-Mole: find the harshest clone and knock it down, then repeat the process when the tumor reappears.
It was a harsh decision to penalise someone for not knocking a young horse about.
It has, however, taken a harsh view of some hits by Washington's Alex Ovechkin, the latest probably knocking Chicago defenseman Brian Campbell out for the season.
