I'm trying to make a curry, and failing. I'm a decent amateur home-cook, but now that I'm exploring outside of my usual cuisines, I'm at a loss how to improve my preparation of this recipe. Either that, or the recipe might just be of questionable quality... which would also be good to know.  Following this recipe (automatic translation here), I end up with something that looks and smells very much like a curry, but it tastes very flat/bland, while still hot/spicy.  I'm not used to talking about flavour so forgive me for this poor attempt at describing the taste (any hints on how to learn that skill?). It's spicy, but only as an after-taste, mostly in the back of the throat. Most curries I've eaten in Indian restaurants had a real strong flavour right at the first impact, which mine is lacking. Adding questionable amounts of salt after serving helped a little bit, but felt like a cheap trick to mask the issue. 
The recipe basically shows how to assemble a curry powder for that "curry" flavor.  What the recipe lacks, and may account for the general "blandness" that you can't put your finger on, is salt.  Add a little salt, if there isn't any elsewhere in the recipe, and see if that perks up the flavor.  As noted in the question, with all the spices and no salt, one would expect it to have some heat, but to be a bit bland. 