OK, I'm stoked. Mangini is writing and may be writing lyrics and has apparently come up with a song title and possibly a concept, James is in the midst of writing at least one song although he isn't sure if it will come to fruition, Myung may be writing as well, they are going for a bit more of a raw sound, they are recording in that space too (which is a surprise to everyone including James), the band dynamics may be possibly the best they've ever been or at least since Jordan first joined or possibly since the Images & Words days.
And they're also apparently releasing the album tomorrow!
I wish they were serious about the last part but early 2019 can't come soon enough.

I'm as excited as you are!

And, yeah, Mike might be writing lyrics for a song, that's awesome to hear! It looks like he's finally getting all the involvement he's wanted to have for all these years. Hopefully this puts to rest all theories of him not being happy with the band and that he was considering to leave after DT14. As for him coming up with a song name/concept, IIRC, this isn't the first time it's happened, as he said on an interview once that he suggested the "what are you willing to live/die for" theme for that section of Illumination Theory

Btw, they answered one of my questions, even though it wasn't one of the big ones. I basically sent a fb comment with A LOT of questions, but the only one that made it to the video was if JM is going to use fretless bass on this album, on which we got a big maybe from him. Time will tell...