if they play 'the rat', then yes. I know they're not really horrifying or painful to listen to, but they do exude a certain vast feeling often

You guys are ruthless!

If our friend who originated this thread is having trouble getting through Xiu Xiu, I fear for what will happen if he listens to the more forbidding sounds people have listed here. Brains are gonna splatter!

If I was to prescribe a baby steps program to ramp this guy up to Whitehouse and Hijo Kaidan, I'd tell him to get Crepuscule with... by the Dead Science next. Close enough and related to Xiu Xiu, but certainly a lot more obtuse and deliberative...and those vocals are rough going.

From there to more noisy stuff, the missing link might be This Song Is a Mess But So Am I. That's near enough to Xiu Xiu with the diary/journal confessional lyric style.

Once you get past the early Swans, try to find the album by Toadliquor just to take that to its most ridiculous extent.

This early Swans thing has to be put right.Lemmi think a bit............

earth - living in the gleam of an unsheathed sword

track 12 from Harry Pussy's What Was Music? it's the one that is just the sound of adris hoyos bloodcurdling screams

i used to think that rid of me by pj harvey was pretty close to the bone but now i'm not so sure.
lady in satin by billie holiday is very sad too.

What ever next? Alanis Morrisets 'Jagged little pill'?

Xiu Xiu - Knife Play
Xiu Xiu - A Promise(Save for walnut house. That track isn't harrowing)
Cat Power - Moon Pix
Parenthetical Girls - GRRLS

seriously,.....

double leopards- urban something or other, cant remember the name of it and not looking for it now!

"Urban Concussion" i think that was a Qbico LP...

for me off hand there are too many harrowing albums to list... i think.

Im kinda from the school of thought that says any music that is completely heavy without any hint of irony or subtlety cannot really be effective. Bad Moon rising isnt a heavy sounding album but theres a load of weird, hammer horror style undertones, as much from the artwork as anything else.
Its like Big Black or the Manic Street Preachers, you need that level of Ridiculousness to make you laugh the obvious heaviness of the music off and get to the more disturbing/weird aspects of the lyrics or performance.

Lil John and the Eastside Boys- Crunk Juice