Really!lol its ice

Ive also been playing a long time and I genuinely thought the "Egyptian scale" and Phrygian dominant were the same thing. In fact I was under the impression that African music in general used essentially exactly the same scales as Western classical and jazz composers, albeit probably with different names. It's just India that used the bizzarro scales and microtonal wizardry, or so I thought (obviously it's all different now from ancient times what with hippies and the Internet but still lol)

These guys love their chromatic approach notes though, no doubt about that. The "tonal gravity" system used by Ernie Stires (Treys guitar instructor for the uninitiated) and others is also worth investigating. It explains Trey's guitar playing and composition pretty well, albeit I still can't understand most of it. Regardless it's worth trying to wrap your head around if you have time. It's related to the Lydian Chromatic Concept which is much easier to comprehend by comparison.

Totally. Few will ever understand (including myself) the depths this band took it to. Incredible.

Yeah drugs can do that, be careful of those flashbacks