I have the feeling this is going to be an awesome album. They have taken their time in the studio with this one. I hope they revisited during the summer tour, the material they had written and made a few changes...
What was the longest *actual studio time* ( not time between albums ) previous to this ? Which album did it produce ?
Shortest studio time was probably Train of Thought ? I know it only took 3 weeks to write the entire album.
One trip to Wikipedia later:
WD&DU: July 18 - August 12 (1988)
I&W: October - December (1991)
Awake: May - July (1994)
FII: June - July (1997)
SFAM: Unspecified months in 1999
6DOIT: Unspecified months in 2001
ToT: March 10 - September (2003)
8VM: November - February (2004-2005)
SC: September - February (2006-2007)
BC&SL: October - March (2008-2009)
ADTOE: January - May (2011)
DT12: January - May (2013)
Going by this, either SFAM, 6DOIT or ToT could be the longest, & the shortest is probably WD&DU.