"PopMatters" Lance Teegarden felt that the song's "layered buzzsaw guitar riffs" and Manson's shout-like vocal performance on the chorus made "Rock Is Dead" sound like the band's previous single "Long Hard Road Out of Hell" (1997).On the track, Manson sings "whap, whap, whap, whap"; MTV's Evan Moore noted that Manson sang the same phrase on the band's cover of "Golden Years" (1975) by David Bowie, which was included on the "Dead Man on Campus" soundtrack.