Interesting that "Epic" seems to have been written so late in the sessions as they typically write the album's epic first. For reference, does anyone know which order the songs from ADTOE were written?
Anyways, also interesting is that the "Opening" (and instrumental) track was written last. Backwards, but interesting. It makes me wonder if the opening track will be a sort of Overture, containing themes and motifs from some or all of the other 8 songs in it? Why else write a track that is blatantly labeled "Opening" so late in the writing process (almost 3 full months after the first song was finished) unless it had something to do with having to incorporate it in to the rest of the album?
Maybe we ARE getting a(n at least musically) concept(ual) album?! It'd be interesting, and an odd mirror to SFAM, which had two instrumentals in it, one of which was an overture. I do like the working titles though! This looks promising. Assuming the album will be a full 75-78 minutes long, 9 songs is pretty sweet, and I can imagine the track lengths being similar to ADTOE and SFAM's scenes (two or three over 10 minutes, one or two under 5, and the rest between 5 and 10).
-Marc.