If it IS a concept album, it would lend credence to the idea that their opening track, written after the rest of the album, will be a sort of overture of sorts, containing themes and motifs used later in the album. Doing the overture/opening track at the end ensures that they know what's going on with the rest of the music and can dissect the rest of the tracks to pick parts for an overture.
Also, many of their instrumentals have also been parts of concepts; "Erotomania" in "A Mind Beside Itself" was a sort of overture, SFAM had 2 instrumentals one of which was an overture, and "Six Degrees" overture contained many themes used throughout the whole piece.
I think we're looking at a 9-song concept album with an overture and an instrumental somewhere in the middle. However, it'll be unlike their other albums in that not only is it a concept album but it also has a longer epic on it. It might be like if SFAM had an ACOS/8VM-like piece in the middle of it. Could be interesting, especially if "epic" in their working titles means a song around 20 minutes long, but I'd be more than happy if it was 10-15 minutes long, especially if this IS a concept album meant to be heard in its entirety, I wouldn't mind 9 songs of varying length between 2-15 minutes long, as long as most of them are relatively long.
-Marc.