6DOIT is split up into like, what, 8 different tracks? But that's viewed around here as an epic.
I really like to think SDOIT as an album in an album, it doesn't work for me if I think that it's one song.
"An album in an album" doesn't make any sense.
Might not be the best description, but it kinda makes sense. Because of the suite like structure of Six Degrees the song, it can feel like a mini album (and in fact, is a similar length if not longer than some albums out there).
Anyway, I also consider The Count of Tuscany an epic, if anyone can describe how it isn't without dismissing the obvious considerations then I'll change my mind on the definition.
The whole description for these things is too ambiguous though. Because anything that's written in parts and sections, is the first step in creating a 'multi layered' structure that is expected in these
epics. Even The Killing Hand which has gone unmentioned should be recognised for this, at the very least it was a precursor for what was to come. And if we can't agree on what the
epics are, we certainly won't agree on whatever a
mini-epic would be.
A Mind Beside Itself is not far from an epic itself, but because it's better known as three songs, I guess it doesn't count. I do wonder if it was intended during the writing process that there'd be some kind of thread that intentionally links them or if it just sorta happened.
And then there's just long songs like Breaking All Illusions, In The Name of God, Scarred. Probably Trial of Tears, even though it has parts. But I guess that doesn't automatically make it an
epic, False Awakening has parts that are less than a minute long and that's not considered an epic by DT fan definitions. Even if it sounds 'epic' in and of itself.
Did someone mention Illumination Theory not being an epic? For all intents and purposes, I think that was always supposed to be written that way. It was even referred to as simply; "Epic" on the board during the "in studio" vids on youtube.