Last Wednesday the story of Italian metal band frontwoman Cristina Balzano, 18, stormed the internet: The New York Times reports she was arrested in Genoa, Italy and charged with attempted murder after allegedly stabbing the guitar player in her band Soul Cry about 50 times for poor performance following a rehearsal in Sestri Ponente.
Few details subsequently emerged in the U.S. media, but through translation of exclusive Italian newspaper reports and their possible discovery of blogs belonging to Cristina’s brother and the victim, TwentyFourBit is passing along more possible specifics about the mysterious event that occurred on December 6th in a dark Genovese alley. In fact, Cristina’s brother (whose name was not released by Italian police and so it will not be released here) has since been arrested and charged with attempted murder after discrepancies in his original account raised suspicions.
Italian newspaper Il Secolo XIX reports Cristina’s brother was discovered, knife wounds on his hands, next to her in the alley where the stabbing took place; the authorities believed his initial account that he had attempted to prevent his sister from stabbing the guitarist, who has been referred to by his initials as A.D. Although Cristina’s initial account was that she was attempting to stop A.D. from committing suicide, her attorneys subsequently informed the media that she has no memory of the event and is being interviewed by psychological experts. Her lawyers also dismissed suggestions that Balzano was under the influence of drugs.
Statements from friends and a particular exchange between Balzano’s brother and A.D. on their presumed blogs further complicate the situation. Il Secolo XIX initially reported on this blog exchange; I will only paraphrase their report here as an exact translation cannot be attained at this time:
After A.D. posted an entry about the band’s lineup, Cristina’s brother responded to the post with a numbered list of criticisms, including A.D.’s omission of his sister’s name as a vocalist. He also called him stupid, and told him to not call himself the guitarist until he learns to play the instrument better.
A.D. responded by adding Cristina’s name to the band lineup as a vocalist and conceding that he is a novice guitar player but plans to improve. Finally, the singer’s brother replies with:
“Apart from that, when something does not work during the rehearsals, you better explain what why it does not work because the last time you were really rude to my sister. See you Saturday at 15:30 in front of the stream; I hope I see you IMPROVED.”
The full exchange in Italian can be found here.
As of now, more details have not been released to the press and cannot be discerned from the blogs in question. TwentyFourBit will not link to the blogs because we are only 99% sure they are owned by these individuals, but we can say many of the commenters are hurling accusations at both Balzano siblings. To be clear, this article in no way suggests any of the aforementioned to be guilty.
Meanwhile, the victim is in critical condition and his father reports to Il Secolo XIX he has damaged lungs, a perforated eardrum, and dozens of knife wounds to his head and back. Doctors believe he will survive.
** The above photo was taken from a related link from the screenshot posted by RadioBlogger from the blog possibly belonging to Cristina Balzano’s brother. It looks like a photograph of the band Soul Cry with Balzano’s brother on the left, the guitarist in the back with his hands up, and possibly Cristina or the other singer Karen in the foreground, but TwentyFourBit has no way of confirming these identities at this time.